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Irish personal privacy regulator probes Ryanair's use of facial recognition

Ireland's Data Defense Commissioner (DPC) opened an EUwide probe on Friday into whether Ryanair's use of facial acknowledgment technology to validate the identity of customers scheduling through 3rd party sites breaks the bloc's personal privacy laws.

The regulator stated it had actually gotten a variety of grievances from Ryanair customers across the European Union over the airline company's practice of asking for extra confirmation from those reserving travel tickets from 3rd party websites or online travel agents, as opposed to directly with Ryanair.

The Irish carrier, Europe's biggest by passenger numbers, states on its website that in order to abide by security and security requirements it need to confirm the identity of passengers' reserving elsewhere because agents typically do not provide Ryanair with consumers' contact and payment information.

Travelers can prevent confirming through facial acknowledgment by showing up at the airport a minimum of two hours before departure or submitting a type and photo of their passport or nationwide ID card beforehand, a procedure Ryanair said can take 7 days to complete.

A similar process is not needed when scheduling through Ryanair's site or smart phone app.

Ryanair said last year when a complaint was lodged on the issue that its biometric and non-biometric procedures were both completely compliant with all the EU's General Data Protection

(source: Reuters)