Due to secret research details on a video lie detector, the leading candidate of the Pirate Party in the European elections, Patrick Breyer, sued the European Commission. As part of the "iBorderCtrl" project, the EU is having European companies and research institutes - including the Leibniz Universität Hannover - develop detectors that will be used in future for immigration inspections.
More in the SPIEGEL
Issue 13/2019
The brown conspiracy
The global network of right-wing terroristsDigital Edition | Printed Edition | Apps | SUBSCRIPTION
It is planned that citizens of third countries at the border control or even from home in front of the webcam perform a kind polygraph test. The video-based system should be able to recognize "criminal intentions" based on the facial expressions of the person answering questions and to give the officials at the border control a "risk value".
So far, however, the research project is largely non-transparent. The reason given by the EU Commission is the protection of the commercial interests of participating companies.
Breyer has now filed a complaint with the European Union Court in Luxembourg for the disclosure of project documents and reports, including ethical and legal evaluation of the technology. An overwhelming public interest stems from the fact that the project "raises fundamental questions of the use of artificial intelligence and their impact on our society".
The overall project is funded with 4.5 million euros and should be completed by August.
This topic comes from the new SPIEGEL magazine - available at the kiosk from Saturday morning and every Friday at SPIEGEL + and in the digital magazine edition.
What is in the new SPIEGEL and what stories you find at SPIEGEL +, you will also learn in our free policy newsletter DIE LAGE, which appears six times a week - compact, analytical, opinionated, written by the political minds of the editorial.