Person identification, human rights and ethical principles : rethinking biometrics in the era of artificial intelligence

As the use of biometrics becomes commonplace in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), this study aims to identify the impact on fundamental rights of current and upcoming developments, and to put forward relevant policy options at European Union (EU) level. Taking as a starting point the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down harmonised rules on AI, presented by the European Commission in April 2021, the study reviews key controversies surrounding what the proposal addresses through the notions of 'remote biometric identification' (which most notably includes live facial recognition), 'biometric categorisation' and so-called 'emotion recognition'. Identifying gaps in the proposed approaches to all these issues, the study puts them in the context of broader regulatory discussions. More generally, the study stresses that the scope of the current legal approach to biometric data in EU law, centred on the use of such data for identification purposes, leaves out numerous current and expected developments that are not centred on the identification of individuals, but nevertheless have a serious impact on their fundamental rights and democracy.