Pressure piles on Brussels to act against face scanning at Budapest Pride

BRUSSELS — Rights groups are pleading with the European Commission to intervene against Hungary’s potential use of facial recognition technology to identify attendees of the banned Pride this weekend in Budapest.

Dozens of digital and human rights groups said Hungary’s use of the technology is “a glaring violation” of the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act, in an open letter sent to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her colleagues in charge of technology, rule of law and equality, first reported by POLITICO.

The groups want Brussels to open an infringement procedure against Hungary for breaking EU law. Such a step would add to ongoing tensions between Brussels and Budapest over whether the Hungarian government abides by the EU’s rule of law standards.

So far, Brussels has only said it is looking at the matter — despite the fact Budapest Pride will take place on Saturday. The EU executive hasn’t responded to questions filed by dozens of European Parliament lawmakers.

In April, POLITICO reported that the Commission was “assessing” a Hungarian law that allows police to use facial recognition technology to identify those at Pride events and would not “hesitate to take action, where appropriate.”

Civil society is enraged by the silence since.

“The inaction of the Commission to enforce fundamental and digital rights, despite urging from civil society, is deeply concerning,” said Blue Tiyavorabun, policy adviser at digital rights group EDRi, one of the signatories of the letter.

The Commission didn’t respond to multiple requests to comment for this article.

Hungary in mid-March banned Pride gatherings, saying the move was designed to protect children. With a series of amendments to existing laws, it opened the door for its police forces to use face scanning for any type of offense — including attending a banned gathering such as Pride.

If the facial recognition occurs in real-time, that would amount to a breach of the EU’s AI Act. The law forbids real-time biometric identification in public places by law enforcers, a rule that came into effect in February.

Hungary’s case marks “the first known violation of the prohibitions,” the rights groups wrote in their letter, saying it would set a “worrying precedent.”

“If unaddressed, this can cause a domino effect where other member states might feel emboldened to adopt similar legislation,” they wrote.

But the Commission still has to assess whether Hungary’s use of the technology amounts to “real-time” use. The EU’s AI rulebook is less strict about biometric identification that is not deployed in real-time. For instance, such biometric identification would be allowed with court approval for specific criminal offenses after the facts took place.

The digital and human rights groups are attempting to convince Brussels that Hungary’s system permits authorities to act “in ways that should be considered real-time,” according to the legal analysis they shared with the Commission, seen by POLITICO.

Hungarian authorities haven’t released details on how the technology would be deployed, but the Hungarian Council for Civil Liberties Union compiled a list of questions and answers that makes some claims about the system.

Facial recognition is performed based on still images, and the system can only identify individuals with a Hungarian photo ID, as the pictures are compared to a facial profile registry maintained by the Hungarian Institute for Forensic Sciences (HIFS), the Hungarian Council for Civil Liberties said in the list of questions and answers.

The registry does not contain actual photographs but a “biometric identifier,” it said.

In their legal analysis, the rights groups say the police could connect directly to the systems of the HIFS and see on the spot whether there’s a match between the image and the biometric identifier. That would fit the AI Act’s definition of real-time, which is “without significant delay,” they said.

HIFS didn’t respond to a request for comment.

A Hungarian government spokesperson said in April it believed “all is in line with our constitution and EU law.”

Several high-profile European politicians are expected to attend Pride on Saturday, among them Equality Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, the chairs of the Socialist, liberal and Green groups, Spain’s Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun, Dutch Education Minister Eppo Bruins, former Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo and former Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. 

Kim van Sparrentak, one of the AI Act’s co-drafters, has also said she’ll attend the parade.

Von der Leyen on Wednesday night called on Hungary to allow the Budapest Pride to go ahead “without fear of any criminal or administrative sanctions against the organisers or participants.”

In response, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said he would “urge the European Commission to refrain from interfering in the law enforcement affairs of member states, where it has no role to play.”