"A Novel and Controversial Technology." Artificial Face Recognition, Privacy Protection, and Algorithm Bias in Europe

R (Bridges) v. Chief Constable of South Wales Police's Court of Appeals ruling... showcases the variety and the thickness of the legal, ethical, and political considerations that lie underneath the deployment of [Artificial Face Recognition]-based police tools and its ramification within Europe and beyond. More broadly, the topic of "[f]acial recognition technologies provide[s] a useful case study of the complex and unpredictable ways that norms of procedural fairness, equality, and privacy interact when the state deploys machine-learning tools to draw inferences from otherwise unilluminating data." This Article uses Bridges as a proxy to sketch out the main legal issues that arise from AFR's policy deployment in Europe. After a quick summary of the facts and of the judgment of the court of first instance, it provides a detailed account of the Court of Appeals' judgment. Then it focuses on how the Court of Appeals balanced competing interests and how this resonates with EU rules.

Finally it compares Bridges with the Artificial Intelligence Act issued by the European Commission. This abstract has been adapted from the author's introduction.