EU backs away from proposed five-year facial recognition ban

The European Union won't issue a ban on facial recognition tech, as it once proposed, the Financial Times reports. In a previous draft of a paper on artificial intelligence, the European Commission suggested a five-year moratorium on facial recognition, so that the technology's impact could be studied, noting that it can be inaccurate, used to breach privacy laws and facilitate identity fraud. In a new draft, seen by the Financial Times, that moratorium has been removed. Instead, it seems the European Commission will encourage individual member states to set their own facial recognition rules. The latest draft suggests that independent groups assess each proposed public use of the technology.