A collection of civil and digital rights groups has called on the EU to "strictly regulate" the use of biometric mass surveillance to protect fundamental human rights.

The collective has launched a European Citizens' Initiative petition urging the bloc to “strictly regulate the use of biometric technologies in order to avoid undue interference with fundamental rights.”

The petition asked for the support of one million Europeans to pressure the European Commission ahead of its legislative proposal on artificial intelligence (AI) in the first quarter of the year, which is expected to cover healthcare, energy, transport and elements of the public sector.

The group, which included Civil Liberties Union for Europe, Reclaim Your Face, European Digital Rights, Privacy International and around 26 other organisations, highlighted the potential dangers of biometric data captured via CCTV cameras and facial recognition technology.

The news comes amid widespread recent calls for stricter regulation on biometric technologies, emphasizing their potential to enable human rights abuses by EU members. The petition claimed the group already has evidence of abuses of citizens' biometric data across Europe.

Orsolya Reich, senior advocacy officer at the Civil Liberties Union for Europe, told Reuters: “This is about everyone’s control over their own future.

“We can already see this happening with the way AI is used to make decisions about us.”

She added: “Biometric mass surveillance will just feed more data from more people into these systems and make these practices even more widespread and harmful.”

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