The European Commission plans to create a huge database for facial recognition to be shared with law enforcement in EU countries.

The authors of the document point to the “great potential” of the initiative. Many EU countries already store photos of millions of citizens: Hungary 30 million, Italy 17 million, France 6 million, Germany 5.5 million. These pictures range from criminal suspects to asylum seekers.

Human rights activists have expressed concern about the European Commission’s plans.

“This is the most comprehensive biometric surveillance infrastructure I think we’ve seen in the world,” said Ella Jakubowska, political adviser to the civil rights NGO European Digital Rights.

The EU representative stated that countries can only share images of the faces of suspected or convicted criminals under Prüm II.

“There will be no matching of facial images with the general population,” he added.

For the last 15 years, under Prüm II policy, police in Europe have been sharing information such as fingerprints and DNA in criminal investigations.

Recall that in April 2021 the European Commission presented a bill regulating the use of AI in the EU.

The new rules prevent law enforcement from using facial recognition, except for “serious crimes”, which the Commission says could mean terrorism-related cases.

That same month, the European data protection agency demanded that the technology be banned without exception because of its “deep and undemocratic invasion” of people’s privacy.

In June, a group of 55 human rights organizations criticized the bill.