this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (17 children)

What’s highly illegal in Europe? Taking a photo or using publicly available images to match that photo to?

  1. Taking a photo for that purpose is likely out.

  2. Matching it to any publically available images is definitely out.

  3. Creating a database of face images for searching: Nope.

  4. Using this system is very problematic.

Some of this is because of the GDPR. So it's likely to be illegal in the UK, as well. And some is because of the AI Act (in particular 4. but also 3. to some degree). That's not something that needs to concern Brits.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (16 children)

I’d have to research 4, but I know for a fact taking a photo of someone in public is protected as you have no right to privacy in public, it’s also not the subjects business what I intend to do with it, so things like posting online might be subject to GDPR but if i wanted to build an app like the one in this post then I would do what they did and have it all on device so it technically isn’t uploaded anywhere.

I would need a law showing that matching a face against publicly available datasets of faces is illegal as that seems insane and difficult to police.

Yes, 3 I agree with as it would fall under GDPR as identifiable information.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (15 children)

I know for a fact

Do you remember why you "know" this? Just curious.

I would need a law showing that matching a face against publicly available datasets of faces is illegal as that seems insane and difficult to police.

Surely you have noticed that there is a lot of criticism of the GDPR and EU tech regulation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Commercial versions of these systems exist in the UK.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jun/06/shopper-facewatch-watchlist-39p-paracetamol-london

The Gdpr makes these things harder to do, but not automatically illegal.

Surely you have noticed that there is a lot of criticism of the GDPR and EU tech regulation.

Yeah, and some of it is even true.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

As I wrote, the UK does not have the AI Act. This is also a case where EU GDPR and UK GDPR diverge.

Finally, I never claimed it's automatically illegal.

Yeah, and some of it is even true.

Most of it, in my experience. I do not know why this community is so committed to disinformation.

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