The Council of Europe has called for strict rules to avoid the significant risks to privacy and data protection posed by the increasing use of facial recognition technologies. Furthermore, certain applications of facial recognition should be banned altogether to avoid discrimination.
In a new set of guidelines addressed to governments, legislators and businesses, the 47-state human rights organisation propose that the use of facial recognition for the sole purpose of determining a person’s skin colour, religious or other belief, sex, racial or ethnic origin, age, health or social status should be prohibited.
This ban should also be applied to “affect recognition” technologies – which can identify emotions and be used to detect personality traits, inner feelings, mental health condition or workers´ level of engagement – since they pose important risks in fields such as employment, access to insurance and education.
The original full article can be found at coe.int