NEW EDRI REPORT REVEALS DEPTHS OF BIOMETRIC MASS SURVEILLANCE IN GERMANY, THE NETHERLANDS AND POLAND ELLA JAKUBOWSKA [5], POLICY ADVISOR, EDRI [6] In a new independent research report [7] by the Edinburgh International Justice Initiative (EIJI) [8], EDRi reveals the shocking extent of unlawful biometric mass surveillance practices in Germany, the Netherlands and Poland which are taking over our public spaces like train stations, streets, and shops. The EU and its Member States must act now to set clear legal limits to these practices which create a state of permanent monitoring, profiling and tracking of people.

"Whilst EU laws say that each of us is innocent until proven guilty, the prevalence of biometric mass surveillance practices across Europe flips this on its head. Each of us is treated as suspicious until 'proven' innocent, by often discriminatory and persecutory deployments of systems that never should have been rolled out in the first place," says Ella Jakubowska, Policy Advisor at EDRi. Read more [1]. (Summaries available in German [2], Dutch [3], Polish [4])

-- Dott. Diego Latella - Senior Researcher CNR/ISTI, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy (http:www.isti.cnr.it [9]) FM&&T Lab. (http://fmt.isti.cnr.it) CNR/GI-STS (http://gists.pi.cnr.it) https://www.isti.cnr.it/People/D.Latella - ph: +390506212982, mob: +39 348 8283101, fax: +390506212040 =================== The quest for a war-free world has a basic purpose: survival. But if in the process we learn how to achieve it by love rather than by fear, by kindness rather than compulsion; if in the process we learn how to combine the essential with the enjoyable, the expedient with the benevolent, the practical with the beautiful, this will be an extra incentive to embark on this great task. Above all, remember your humanity. -- Sir Joseph Rotblat I don't quite know whether it is especially computer science or its subdiscipline Artificial Intelligence that has such an enormous affection for euphemism. We speak so spectacularly and so readily of computer systems that understand, that see, decide, make judgments, and so on, without ourselves recognizing our own superficiality and immeasurable naivete with respect to these concepts. And, in the process of so speaking, we anesthetise our ability to evaluate the quality of our work and, what is more important, to identify and become conscious of its end use. […] One can't escape this state without asking, again and again: "What do I actually do? What is the final application and use of the products of my work?" and ultimately, "am I content or ashamed to have contributed to this use?" -- Prof. Joseph Weizenbaum ["Not without us", ACM SIGCAS 16(2-3) 2--7 - Aug. 1986] Links: ------ [1] https://edri.org/our-work/new-edri-report-reveals-depths-of-biometric-mass-s... [2] https://edri.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/The-Rise-and-Rise-of-Biometric-M... [3] https://edri.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/The-Rise-and-Rise-of-Biometric-M... [4] https://edri.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/The-Rise-and-Rise-of-Biometric-M... [5] https://twitter.com/ellajakubowska1 [6] https://edri.org/ [7] https://edri.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/EDRI_RISE_REPORT.pdf [8] https://internationaljusticeinitiative.com/ [9] http://www.isti.cnr.it