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With a long history of collaboration in the finance and insurance sector, Timestamp brings together deep technical skills in these areas.Trust our know-how to implement solutions that will transform your business and make it more digital. We rise to the growth, efficiency and risk management challenges in these fields.

Banking and Insurance

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Our work in Healthcare can support the operational, clinical or financial systems of organizations. We always strive to provide health professionals and their patients a high level of quality and rigor.Benefit from the latest technologies applied to the Health sector. Timestamp has a multidisciplinary teams at your disposal to streamline services and foster optimal process quality.

Health

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Timestamp has a vast experience in digitalization projects for the Portuguese’s local and central government services. Our skills contribute to a more modern and digital Public Sector with a view to improving people’s lives.Together, we can accelerate the Digital Transformation of the government and public services, through simpler, integrated and proactive services. Our experience, skills and partnerships are at the service of people and organizations.

Government & Public Services

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Our projects in the Industry and Services sector focus on the planning and implementation of services such as financial consolidation, planning, procurement and logistics.We also load large volumes of data (SAS Data Loader) and develop customized dashboards.

Industries and Services

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In the Retail and Logistics sector, we provide data and progress analysis services, as well as maintenance, migration and merging of platforms.We support our customers with training sessions in Hyperion Financial Management, in remote management of Oracle and Exadata databases and in the implementation of SAS Visual Analytics and HCM.

Retail and Logistics

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Timestamp's work in the field of Aeronautics stands out for developing a process for the dematerialization of invoices. We also focus on logistics and HCM support, on implementing of Datacenter and Disaster Recovery units, on unifying financial data and on applying current technologies.

Aeronautics

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Timestamp provides a variety of tools for the Energy and TELCOS sector, which enables them to determine general and high-level status in the implemented modules, as well as to identify critical issues, solutions, and gaps in knowledge and skills.We support our customers with Big Data &amp; Analytics management, platform implementation and maintenance, data migration, deployment of consultants, as well as with training sessions in this area.

Energy and TELCOS

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Our support in Life Sciences includes the implementation of comprehensive solutions such as content management, data migration, identification of critical issues, development of Oracle platforms, database and middleware management.This offer aims to support our customers' core applications, increasing their efficiency and agility, while the effort of the involved agents is reduced.

Life Sciences

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We work with different types of offer, so you can choose the one that best fits your project and your needs.

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The Artificial Intelligence Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, known as the "AI Act") entered into full force, in August 2024.On February 2nd 2025, the first general provisions of the Regulation have started, establishing strict rules for the development, deployment and use of artificial intelligence systems.On 4 February 2025, the European Commission published the "Guidelines on Prohibited AI Practices". Although not legally binding, these guidelines provide detailed directions and practical examples to standardise the interpretation of Article 5 of the Artificial Intelligence Regulation across the European Union.These prohibitions apply to AI systems that violate core principles such as human dignity, privacy and non-discrimination.<h3>1 - WHAT ARE THE AI PRACTICES PROHIBITED UNDER THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REGULATION?</h3>These correspond to practices that pose a risk to the fundamental rights and values of the EU and may cause severe physical, psychological, financial or economic harm.<h3>2 - WHICH AI PRACTICES ARE PROHIBITED UNDER THE AI ACT?</h3><h4>a) &nbsp; &nbsp;Cognitive and Behavioural Manipulation</h4>Manipulation occurs when an AI system influences a person’s thinking or actions in a covert way, without them realising they are being steered towards a specific choice.Examples of prohibited practices:<ul><li>Algorithms that manipulate emotions to induce compulsive purchases;</li><li>AI that exploits addictions or psychological vulnerabilities to create dependency;</li><li>Systems that covertly influence voting or political opinions.</li></ul>Examples of permitted exceptions:<ul><li>Brain-machine interfaces and neuro-assistant technologies are permitted if ethically designed and privacy-respecting.</li><li>Lawful persuasion is also allowed, provided it is conducted transparently and respects the user’s freedom of choice.</li><li>Personalisation based on informed consent is allowed. For example, a personalised learning system may adjust content based on student performance, as long as the user maintains control over their choices.</li></ul><h4>b) &nbsp; &nbsp;Exploitation of Vulnerabilities of Specific Groups through AI</h4>This prohibition covers systems that exploit the vulnerabilities of groups such as children, the elderly, persons with disabilities or individuals in situations of social and economic disadvantage.The prohibition exists because these groups may find it more difficult to recognise or resist manipulations, making them easy targets for abuse and exploitation by AI systems.Examples of prohibited practices:<ul><li>AI-enabled toys that manipulate children to obtain information or influence behaviour;</li><li>Credit systems that economically exploit the elderly or low-income individuals.</li></ul>Examples of permitted exceptions:<ul><li>AI applications that support children's learning, such as interactive platforms and virtual tutors, provided they do not manipulate behaviour or foster harmful dependency;</li><li>Health Assistants and Support Robots for the Elderly and People with Disabilities;</li><li>Systems Supporting Social and Economic Integration.</li></ul><h4>c) &nbsp; &nbsp;Social Scoring Systems</h4>This point prohibits systems that assess or classify individuals based on their social behaviour, personal characteristics or history, resulting in unequal treatment or discrimination.The European Union’s concern is that AI must not be used to categorise citizens unfairly, restricting their rights or opportunities based on arbitrary scoring, as seen in some authoritarian regimes.Examples of prohibited practices:<ul><li>AI systems that restrict civil liberties based on personal history (such as China’s social credit system);</li><li>Systems that deny essential services (healthcare, credit, education) based on behavioural scores;</li><li>“Social reputation” systems that limit access to jobs and housing.</li></ul>Examples of permitted exceptions:<ul><li>Companies may use AI to assess the financial fraud risk of customers, provided the data is relevant (e.g., transactional behaviour and metadata within the context of the service);</li><li>Systems analysing medical and behavioural data (e.g., schizophrenia diagnosis based on patient behaviour) are not prohibited, provided the assessment is relevant, necessary and does not result in unjustified treatment.</li></ul><h4>d) &nbsp; &nbsp;Real-time Biometric Surveillance in Public Spaces</h4>The use of facial recognition and other forms of biometric surveillance in public spaces without specific legal justification.Examples of prohibited practices:<ul><li>Facial recognition for mass monitoring without consent;</li><li>Systems tracking citizens in real time without valid legal grounds.</li></ul>Examples of permitted exceptions:<ul><li>If judicially authorised for specific cases of public security threat (e.g. terrorism prevention);</li><li>Specific applications of systems for locating missing persons.</li></ul><h4>e) &nbsp; &nbsp;Indiscriminate Facial Image Scraping</h4>The use of AI to collect and extract large volumes of facial images from public sources, such as the internet and CCTV footage, without a specific legal basis, is prohibited.Examples of prohibited practices:<ul><li>Creating facial recognition databases by automatically extracting images from the internet using AI without individuals’ consent;</li><li>Using systems to collect facial images from public surveillance footage without legal authorisation, particularly for general population monitoring.</li></ul>Examples of permitted exceptions:<ul><li>Collection carried out in a targeted and justified manner, as part of a specific criminal investigation, with judicial authorisation;</li><li>Specific system applications for security purposes, provided they respect fundamental rights and comply with data protection legislation.</li></ul><h4>f) &nbsp; &nbsp;Emotion Recognition in Sensitive Contexts (Work and Education)</h4>The use of emotion recognition systems in workplace and educational settings is prohibited, as it constitutes a privacy violation and may lead to discrimination or excessive control.Examples of prohibited practices:<ul><li>Monitoring employees’ emotional states at work through AI systems to assess productivity or behaviour;</li><li>Using AI to analyse students’ facial expressions or tone of voice in the classroom to assess attention or engagement, without valid justification.</li></ul>Examples of permitted exceptions:<ul><li>Use justified on medical grounds, such as supporting patients with communication difficulties;</li><li>Use required for safety purposes, e.g., to prevent accidents, such as detecting extreme fatigue in drivers or workers in high-risk environments.</li></ul><h4>g) Biometric Categorisation Based on Sensitive Data</h4>The AI Act prohibits biometric categorisation systems that use biometric data to infer individuals’ sensitive attributes, such as race, political opinions, trade union membership, religious beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation.Examples of prohibited practices:<ul><li>An AI system claiming to deduce a person’s race based on their voice;</li><li>An AI system analysing tattoos or facial features to infer religious beliefs;</li><li>An AI system attempting to categorise a user’s sexual orientation based on photos shared online.</li></ul>Examples of permitted exceptions:<ul><li>The use of biometric data for medical diagnoses using AI systems may be permitted, e.g., image-based analysis for detecting skin diseases or genetic conditions related to skin or eye colour;</li><li>The use of biometric categorisation to ensure demographic representativeness in databases may be permitted, provided it complies with data protection regulations.</li></ul><h4>h) Real-time Biometric Identification for Law Enforcement</h4>The AI Act generally prohibits the use of remote real-time biometric identification (RBI) systems in public spaces for law enforcement purposes.However, there are specific exceptions in which this technology may be used, provided it is authorised under national legislation and all regulatory conditions and safeguards are met.Examples of prohibited practices:<ul><li>Police install CCTV cameras equipped with real-time facial recognition in multiple city locations, including places of worship, minority neighbourhoods and commercial establishments;</li><li>Authorities use a real-time AI facial recognition system to identify participants in a political protest, based on images captured by city-installed cameras;</li><li>During a football match, an emotional recognition system analyses spectator behaviour to predict potential violent incidents. The system automatically activates RBI to identify supporters previously involved in disturbances.</li></ul>Examples of permitted exceptions:<ul><li>RBI systems used to locate victims of serious crimes and missing persons, such as in cases of human trafficking, child sexual exploitation or abduction, where there is a well-founded suspicion of imminent danger;</li><li>RBI systems used to prevent specific and imminent threats to individuals’ physical safety, including terrorist threats, provided they are duly justified.</li></ul><h3>3 - WHY ARE THESE PRACTICES PROHIBITED UNDER THE AI REGULATION?</h3>The European Commission has prohibited these systems, as they are considered to violate fundamental rights such as:<ul><li>Right to privacy and data protection;</li><li>Freedom of thought and free decision-making autonomy;</li><li>Non-discrimination and equal treatment;</li><li>Safety and protection from technological abuse.</li></ul><h3>4 - WHAT ARE THE PENALTIES FOR NON-COMPLIANCE WITH THE AI REGULATION'S RULES ON PROHIBITED PRACTICES?</h3>Penalties for non-compliance with the rules on prohibited AI practices are the most severe set out in the AI Act, reflecting the seriousness of these violations.Providers and users that develop or use prohibited AI systems may be fined up to EUR 35 million or 7% of the infringing company’s total worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher.These stringent penalties are justified by the high risk these practices pose to fundamental rights, safety and the values of the European Union. The regulation aims to prevent significant harm resulting from the abusive use of AI.The imposition of heavy sanctions is intended to deter companies and public bodies from engaging in these illegal practices and to ensure a consistent level of protection and compliance throughout the European Union.<h3>5 - HOW TO ACT AND ENSURE COMPLIANCE WITH THE AI REGULATION?</h3>Companies that develop, import, distribute, implement or use Artificial Intelligence within the European Union must ensure that their systems do not violate the prohibited practices set out in the AI Regulation (EU) 2024/1689.Any system that falls within the described scenarios may not be marketed or used in the EU, and failure to comply with these rules may result in severe fines and legal sanctions.In this context, it is essential that companies carry out a detailed assessment of their AI systems to ensure full legal compliance.Companies must map, analyse and classify their systems by Risk, to determine whether they fall under the prohibited practices and adopt the necessary measures accordingly.<h3>6 - HOW CAN TIMESTAMP HELP?</h3>We offer a structured methodology to map, analyse and classify your organisation’s AI systems, identifying relevant critical points and associated risks in line with the regulatory framework.Timestamp provides a 360° approach to Artificial Intelligence, covering Regulatory Compliance; Technological and Functional Consulting; and Technological Solutions, supporting your company throughout the entire AI project lifecycle, from diagnosis, design, development and system implementation, to monitoring.We tailor Artificial Intelligence to your business strategy, requirements and needs, in an ethical and responsible way, ensuring best industry practices, leading technologies and regulatory alignment.Find out more about how we can help your company: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.timestampgroup.com/en/offer/privacy-and-digital-security-en">Privacy &amp; Digital Security | Timestamp</a> &amp; <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.timestampgroup.com/en/offer/data-and-ai-en">Data &amp; AI | Timestamp</a> &nbsp;By: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/theanamartins/">Ana Martins | Managing Director – Compliance, Governance &amp; Sustainability</a>

Ana Martins, Managing Director – Compliance, Governance &amp; Sustainability at Timestamp, explains the guidelines on prohibited AI practices from the European Commission.

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Artificial Intelligence Regulation: European Comission's Guidelines about Prohibited Practices