Next Democratic Frontiers for Facial Recognition Technology

Speaker: Natalia Menéndez González, Research Associate (European University Institute).

This guest lecture focuses on facial recognition technology (FRT) and sheds light on previously unexplored aspects that involve systematic legal issues concerning its regulation, the protection of rights and freedoms, the preservation of democracy and the rule of law. FRT employs cutting-edge AI systems capable of processing biometric data for identification, verification and categorization purposes. Although there have been huge strides in the research and development of these systems in the last few decades and computer scientists are following and supporting this evolution, legal scholars have only been investigating the implications for fundamental rights for the past few years. The introduction of new regulations (especially the European Union AI Act) has turned the debate on its head, putting FRT in the spotlight. However, there are still certain aspects that have not yet been explored but will be crucial in the coming years for the democratic, social, technical, ethical, and legal acceptance of this technology.

Dr. Natalia Menéndez González is a Research Associate on data governance at the Centre for a Digital Society of the European University Institute and Assistant Professor and Director of the Minor in Digital Law & AI Law at CUNEF University. She is also a visiting researcher at the Biometrics Law Lab of the Center for IT & IP Law at the KU Leuven Faculty of Law and Criminology, a co-founder of The DigiCon blog, and a former vice-chair of the PhD students in AI Ethics research group. She holds a PhD in Law and an LLM from the European University Institute and she has been a guest lecturer at the School of Transnational Governance and the Universities of Turin, York (Canada), Dresden and Toronto. She has numerous publications on the intersection between Law and Technology on diverse outlets including Interactive Entertainment Law Review, Communication Law Review or Digital Society and has co-edited the volume "Next Democratic Frontiers for Facial Recognition Technology" (2025) published by Springer.