Serbian Schools Deploy AI Facial Recognition Surveillance Without Student Consent

In 2022, multiple Serbian educational institutions implemented AI-powered facial recognition surveillance systems designed to monitor student attendance, behavior, and movement within school premises. The systems used computer vision technology to automatically identify and track individual students throughout the school day, creating detailed profiles of student activities and whereabouts. The deployment occurred without obtaining proper informed consent from students or their parents, violating fundamental data protection principles for processing biometric data of minors. Schools failed to conduct required data protection impact assessments or establish legal bases for processing sensitive personal data under Serbian and EU data protection frameworks. The Big Brother Awards, an international privacy advocacy organization, publicly criticized the deployment as part of their 2022 awards ceremony highlighting the most egregious privacy violations. The organization noted that the surveillance systems represented a significant escalation in educational monitoring that normalized mass surveillance of children without adequate safeguards or oversight. Following public criticism and privacy complaints, the Serbian Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection launched formal investigations into the school deployments. The regulatory authority examined whether schools had proper legal authorization for biometric data processing and whether students' fundamental rights to privacy and data protection were adequately protected. The incident reflects broader concerns about AI surveillance expansion in educational settings across Eastern Europe, where schools increasingly adopt facial recognition and behavioral monitoring technologies without comprehensive privacy frameworks. Educational privacy advocates have raised concerns that such systems create environments of constant surveillance that may negatively impact student development and learning. The case highlights regulatory gaps in oversight of AI deployment in sensitive sectors like education, where power imbalances between institutions and individuals require enhanced protection measures for personal data processing.