A law change will be required for the method to be used at airports.

- For us it just means that it will take a little longer and it is just to wait kindly. Right now we are having a dialogue with the Ministry of Justice and hope that the issue will be prioritized so that we can get started, "says Britt-Louise Wahlberg, process manager at the police's national operational department.

Stop criminals

The police wanted to try facial recognition technology in an attempt to stop criminals and hope to be able to develop a computer program that recognizes and matches the faces of suspects, for example from surveillance cameras, with people in the police's register.

The Data Inspectorate believes that as the legislation is currently designed, the police cannot carry out tests with sensitive personal data, which is biometric data.

"Law support is missing right now"

"This is the first time we are looking at this situation and we see that there are both reasons and needs for the police to be able to process sensitive data, but as it looks right now, there is no legal support to perform the intended test," says Elena Mazzotti , lawyer at the Data Inspectorate.