UN Human Rights Council adoption of 'Right to privacy in the digital age': Emotion recognition technologies acknowledged

The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council has acknowledged emotion recognition technologies as an emergent priority in the global right to privacy in the digital age.

With the proposed AI Act and GC25 of the UNCRC also acknowledging it, the policy landscape is changing quickly.

Emotion Recognition Technologies

Biometric and emotion data refer to intimate dimensions of human life. They provide cues about mental states and about the body itself. Emotion recognition technologies have attracted many criticisms (for instance about unproven methodologies), but this is not preventing their deployment worldwide in everyday objects, services, and situations. Indeed, there is a rapidly emerging global market for data about emotions, with emotion recognition now of keen interest to the technology industry, and the diverse sectors that perceive economic value in understanding emotional and mental states.

You might encounter emotion recognition technologies in schools to monitor student’s emotion and quality of engagement; in call centres to track the emotional tone of callers’ and workers’ voices; in shops to profile customers’ emotions towards products; in cars to measure fatigue, stress and anger in drivers to generate voice alerts or mood appropriate music; and in security contexts for border control, policing and crowd control.

Influencing the UN Human Rights Council

The UN Human Rights Council has formally adopted the Resolution titled 'Right to privacy in the digital age.' In principle this an update of the UN’s understanding of human rights to better account for modern digital life, and questions of privacy raised therein.

With most States having adopted constitutions and other laws which formally protect basic human rights, this Resolution will be international in reach and influence, informing international treaties and law, and regional and national law.

The Resolution is the outcome of a 2014 report by the High Commissioner on the right to privacy in the digital age (A/HRC/27/37) and on the presentations and discussions at an expert workshop that took place in Geneva in February 2018. It also includes insights from written evidence.

Our Contribution

Andrew McStay of the Emotional AI Lab and Bangor University was invited to, and participated in, the expert workshops in Geneva 2018 and submitted written recommendations. As a result, emotion recognition technologies have been recognised as an emergent priority, with recommendation 3 (see pg. 4) including ‘emotional recognition’ and need for ‘proper safeguards.’ Notably, McStay’s submission was the only submission to include and address emotion and affect recognition.