Comment by Kim Van Sparrentak

Mr President, without knowing, we are all being tracked, followed and identified on the streets by facial recognition cameras. This is dangerous, intrusive and disproportionate. Imagine waking up one day with the police barging into your house after AI has flagged you as a suspect. Then it’s up to you to prove your innocence. It is you versus the computer. [...] So not only is a ban perfectly feasible, we in the EU are far behind in our ethical AI choices. And if we as Parliament are serious about making the EU a leader in ethical AI and fundamental human rights, let’s ban biometric surveillance in public spaces. Unverified source (2021)