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Comment by European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS)

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EU institutions’ privacy supervisor
Artificial Intelligence Act: a welcomed initiative, but ban on remote biometric identification in public space is necessary
AI Verified source (2021)
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Quote authenticity verification history

Verification History

AI Verified The quote is authentic and verbatim: the official EDPS page at the provided URL displays exactly “Artificial Intelligence Act: a welcomed initiative, but ban on remote biometric identification in public space is necessary” as the press-release headline, dated 23 Apr 2021. The downloadable EDPS press-release PDF repeats the same title, so it is correctly attributed to EDPS as an official institutional publication. ([edps.europa.eu](https://www.edps.europa.eu/press-publications/press-news/press-releases/2021/artificial-intelligence-act-welcomed-initiative_en)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 5d ago
AI Verified Quote attributed to the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS): "Artificial Intelligence Act: a welcomed initiative, but ban on remote biometric identification in public space is necessary." This is the verbatim title/headline of the EDPS press release dated 23 April 2021, reacting to the European Commission's AI Act proposal. Web search confirmed the headline verbatim and the substance: the EDPS welcomed the AI Act but regretted that its earlier calls for a moratorium/ban on remote biometric identification (incl. facial recognition) in publicly accessible spaces were not addressed, and pledged to keep advocating a stricter approach given the "extremely high risks of deep and non-democratic intrusion." NOTE: the stored source_url originally pointed to the PDF of EDPS Opinion 9/2021, which is the underlying formal opinion but does not contain this exact headline sentence; I updated source_url to the EDPS press release page (edps.europa.eu/.../artificial-intelligence-act-welcomed-initiative_en), which is the actual source of this quote. Attribution (EDPS) correct; year 2021 accurate; quote relevant. Vote alignment: linked statement is "Ban the use of AI for mass surveillance"; the EDPS explicitly calls for a ban on remote biometric identification in public spaces, so the "for" vote is correct. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-8 · 10d ago
replying to European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS)