Why simulating RBI?

Ready to see what RBI (Remote Biometric Identification) would do, if ever applied to your country’s politicians’ faces?

We picked some of the most prominent political figures in all EU Member States (up to 5 ministers/national representatives), and ran an open-source RBI face recognition algorithm on them.

Why? Because many of them are currently involved in the EU Artificial Intelligence Act’s negotiations (trialogues) and their vote could drastically alter the course of how AI is regulated and used.

Now more than ever, it’s crucial that they understand the harms and implications of RBI technology.

What’s wrong with RBI?

An RBI-free Europe is still a mirage, since the proposed version of the AI Act fails to call for a comprehensive ban on biometry. Indeed, invasive AI policing is admitted, which undermines the citizens’ right to privacy and could lead to discrimination and abuse of power.

Migrants at the EU border also run the risk of being discriminated against/wrongfully detained by border agencies and authorities, since the AI Act does not explicitly prohibit biometric surveillance in those instances.

Let’s make pro-RBI legislators change their mind on AI surveillance.

Before proceeding, please make sure you read our “ About ” section detailing Don’t Spy EU’s main scope and motives.

⚠ Keep in mind that…

• Although biometric recognition is currently banned in some EU Member States (Italy being one of them), a total ban at the European level has not been considered yet. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) does exist, but can only regulate isolated cases, resulting in limited range of action (see the Clearview case );

• Wait, so… If RBI IS to be banned, are we some sort of criminals? Well, technically speaking, ours is an act of civil disobedience. Through this simulation, we want to make sure our voice is heard – loud and clear, as all citizens are facing an imminent threat and Europeans’ digital future looks scary.

• We do not encourage anyone to repeat this action outside of this campaign. Please keep in mind that if you decide to submit any data or images we’ll protect your anonymity. Always.

Upload new Faces

We can only accept pictures with faces that belong to politicians already registered in our database.

• Here’s the open source face recognition library we use. If the face in the picture you upload doesn’t match the expected politician, it will be automatically deleted.

• Pictures with more than one face will also be automatically deleted.

• If you want to upload the face of a politician who happens to be missing from our index, check out our criteria .

• Only trusted individuals with a private link can insert a politician in our index. 🙏 Reach out to us 🙏 if you think you can be that person.

Don’t Spy EU – Database

Below are all the European politicians’ faces & info we’ve managed to collect and insert in our database. Each country can feature a maximum of five politicians, but you’ll notice some countries only have 1 or 2 politicians.

You can help us build a more complete database, if you want. We are looking for the following roles: Prime Minister, AI Act Gov. Representative, Minister of Justice, Internal Affairs Minister, and Minister of Defense. To add new politicians, keep scrolling.