EU AI Act glossary · Governance· Art. 5
Real-time remote biometric identification
Real-time remote biometric identification (RBI) is identifying people from biometric data at a distance, live, in publicly accessible spaces. Its use by law enforcement is prohibited by Article 5 except in narrowly defined, authorised situations.
The narrow exceptions (e.g. searching for specific victims of serious crime, preventing an imminent threat, or locating suspects of certain serious offences) require prior authorisation and safeguards. Other biometric identification can be high-risk under Annex III(1).
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