On 28 January 2021, the Council of Europe published a new set of guidelines on the use of facial recognition technologies ("Guidelines"). The Guidelines, addressed especially to governments, facial recognition developers, manufacturers, service providers and entities using facial recognition technologies, indicate that AI technologies using facial recognition are an extremely sensitive matter and may pose a real threat to the rights of data subjects, including their right to privacy.
In general, it is the legislators' responsibility to ensure the accountability of facial recognition developers and providers, including through the creation of appropriate certification mechanisms. The Guidelines also emphasise that any measures taken should evolve over time and be proportionate to the sensitivity of the data, as the privacy of data subjects is of the essence. Those to whom the Guidelines are addressed should now work hard to achieve a perfect balance between the proposed restrictions and continuing technological development. Read the full article here.
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