Comment by troupo
When EU introduced its AI Act there was much gnashing of teeth here at HN over "stifling of innovation" and "getting left behind in technological backwater".
EU AI Act specifically calls out and forbids such applications. Of course, the state will do what the state will do, but there's an actual obstacle enshrined in law.
And there is the right to privacy enshrined as well but that has no bearing on what states will do ultimately.
The EU is in the midst of ending encryption and will soon require lawful access to all your data by forcing providers to bake in legal backdoors in OSes so that nobody can bypass/deactivate them.
All of this done under the guise of protecting the children, stopping misinformation(the ministry of truth is back) and protect democracy (TM).
The AI act may be a good thing in some cases but we should all stop pretending that the EU is not following in the footsteps of the US when it comes to loss of privacy and restriction of freedom of speech.
Many western countries are slowly sliding into wannabe authoritarian regimes.