The future must be ours to shape.
Facial recognition can and will be used against each of us by governments and corporations – based on who we are and what we look like.
Reclaim our public space. Ban biometric mass surveillance!
Sign the petition for a new law now
https://reclaimyourface.eu/
Civil society initiative for a ban on biometric mass surveillance practices
In particular, we ask the Commission to prohibit, in law and in practice, indiscriminate or arbitrarily-targeted uses of biometrics which can lead to unlawful mass surveillance. These intrusive systems must not be developed, deployed (even on a trial basis) or used by public or private entities insofar as they can lead to unnecessary or disproportionate interference with people’s fundamental rights.
Evidence shows that uses of biometric mass surveillance in Member States and by EU agencies have resulted in violations of EU data protection law, and unduly restricted people‘s rights including their privacy, right to free speech, right to protest and not to be discriminated against. The widespread use of biometric surveillance, profiling and prediction is a threat to the rule of law and our most basic freedoms.
In this ECI, we therefore urge the Commission to propose a legal act which will build upon, and fully respect, the general prohibitions in the GDPR and the LED to ensure that EU law explicitly and specifically prohibits biometric mass surveillance.
The EU has the power to end these abusive practices.
What is it?
Biometric data are bits of data that are unique to our bodies and behaviours, which divulge sensitive information about who we are. For example, our faces can be used for facial recognition to make a prediction or assessment about us – and so can our eyes, veins, voices, the way we walk or type on a keyboard, and much more.
Governments, police forces and corporations use recording devices (like CCTV cameras) and facial recognition software to gather our biometric data. This means they can track us from one place to another using our unique characteristics to permanently identify each of us. This blanket capture of every person’s biometric data in public spaces like streets, parks, train stations, shops or sports venues simply for trying to live our lives is biometric mass surveillance. It treats us all as walking barcodes.
