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Italy privacy watchdog halts facial recognition at Milan airport
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on September 17, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on September 17, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Italy's privacy watchdog halts facial recognition at Milan's Linate airport due to data protection concerns, pending further investigation.
MILAN (Reuters) -Italy's privacy watchdog has temporarily suspended the use of facial recognition technology at Milan's Linate airport pending the conclusion of a long-running data protection investigation, documents showed on Wednesday.
Facial recognition screenings at airports have raised global concerns about the potential misuse of passenger data.
The privacy watchdog in Italy, known as Garante, justified the suspension by saying there were insufficient safeguards at Linate to stop the use of facial recognition on passengers who had not signed up to it.
Its decision, dated September 11, was made public on Wednesday.
On its website, Milan airports operator SEA says its "Faceboarding" technology is "safe, simple and fast", allowing passengers to go through security checkpoints without showing their passports or identity cards.
On Wednesday, reacting to Garante's measure, SEA said it complies with current regulations and was working with the watchdog to clarify all aspects of data processing.
It said it hoped to resume the optional facial recognition service, which is only available to adult passengers who request it, as soon as possible, saying it enhances airport security and speeds up procedures.
(Reporting by Claudia Cristoferi, editing by Alvise Armellini and Ed Osmond)
The Garante justified the suspension by stating there were insufficient safeguards at Linate airport to prevent the use of facial recognition on passengers who had not consented.
The technology is referred to as 'Faceboarding', which allows passengers to go through security checkpoints without showing their passports or identification.
SEA stated that it complies with current regulations and is working with the Garante to clarify all aspects of data processing, hoping to resume the service soon.
The optional facial recognition service is only available to adult passengers who specifically request it.
The decision was made public on Wednesday, with the official date of the decision being September 11.
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