Danish regulator severely criticises Faaborg-Midtfyn Municipality over AI monitoring in elder care
The Danish Data Protection Agency said on 5 November 2026 that it had expressed severe criticism of the Danish municipality Faaborg-Midtfyn over its use of an AI-based monitoring system at a nursing home. The agency opened the case on its own initiative in January 2026, as part of its focus on AI used to monitor citizens in care. According to the municipality, the system was used on 18 residents during a limited six-month trial meant to increase their sense of security, prevent falls and support care staff's professional assessments.
A sensor unit in each care unit used AI and camera-based technology to analyse movement patterns and report on sleep quality, restlessness, breathing and movement. The municipality said the camera was used only in short sequences and only for potential falls. The agency found its risk assessment too general: it listed only generic threats, rated all of them low risk without justification and did not show that security measures matched the risks. Given the new technology and sensitive data about vulnerable people, an impact assessment should have been carried out before deployment, and the six-month trial did not change the duty to comply with data protection rules. The municipality relied on general provisions in the Social Services Act and the Elderly Care Act, which the agency said cannot alone serve as the legal basis. It pointed to rules on welfare technology for people with significant, lasting dementia or similar cognitive impairment, which set specific conditions for AI use and which the municipality had not considered.
Privacy teams supporting care pilots should tie each threat in a risk assessment to a concrete risk for residents, give a reason for every score, and complete the DPIA before a trial starts, however short it is. Where AI monitors people with dementia, they should confirm which specific legal basis applies instead of relying on general care provisions.
Original title: Alvorlig kritik af kommunes brug af AI i ældreplejen
- Who this binds
- Danish municipalities and other public care providers that use AI or camera monitoring on people in their care.
- What changed
- The agency held that general provisions in Danish care legislation cannot on their own justify AI monitoring of care home residents, and that the specific welfare technology rules must be considered.
- What to check
- Privacy teams should check that the security measures in existing pilot assessments are shown to fit the risks they list.
- What this does not mean
- This decision does not prohibit the use of artificial intelligence sensor technology in residential homes where controllers properly invoke the specific welfare technology statutes and complete a data protection impact assessment in advance.
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A Danish council tested AI camera sensors on nursing home residents without the impact assessment the regulator says was needed, and a short trial was no excuse.