24 February 2020
A report published by The Intercept looks at plans to expand the EU's 'Prüm' network of police databases to include facial recognition technology.
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"A police investigator in Spain is trying to solve a crime, but she only has an image of a suspect’s face, caught by a nearby security camera. European police have long had access to fingerprint and DNA databases throughout the 27 countries of the European Union and, in certain cases, the United States. But soon, that investigator may be able to also search a network of police face databases spanning the whole of Europe and the U.S.
According to leaked internal European Union documents, the EU could soon be creating a network of national police facial recognition databases. A report drawn up by the national police forces of 10 EU member states, led by Austria, calls for the introduction of EU legislation to introduce and interconnect such databases in every member state. The report, which The Intercept obtained from a European official who is concerned about the network’s development, was circulated among EU and national officials in November 2019. If previous data-sharing arrangements are a guide, the new facial recognition network will likely be connected to similar databases in the U.S., creating what privacy researchers are calling a massive transatlantic consolidation of biometric data."
Leaked Reports Show EU Police Are Planning a Pan-European Network of Facial Recognition Databases (The Intercept, link)
See: Council of the EU: Next Generation Prüm (Prüm.ng) - Reports from focus groups / Report on face recognition (13356/19, LIMITE, pdf)
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