Police use of 'intrusive' and 'inaccurate' facial recognition tech challenged in UK court

Police use of 'intrusive' and 'inaccurate' facial recognition tech challenged in UK court.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/police-use-of-intrusive-and-inaccurate-facial-recognition-tech-challenged-in-uk-court/ar-AABDwSe?li=BBoPWjQ&ocid=mailsignout

South Wales Police has been using the technology in public surveillance operations since 2017, and other police forces have also been experimenting with the technology in different contexts.

However, its use in public spaces is particularly controversial.

"Having police indiscriminately scanning us all as we go about our daily lives makes our privacy rights meaningless," said Bridges, who crowdfunded the case.

"The inevitable result is that people will change their behaviour and feel scared to protest or express themselves freely – in short, we'll be less free.

"There's no law allowing facial recognition. Parliament hasn't debated it. The public hasn't been consulted.

"There's not even any guidance on how to deploy it, and no independent oversight to make sure its use is appropriate and our rights are protected."


Facial recognition technology is also highly inaccurate, and often misidentifies female and non-white faces, according to Liberty.

Freedom of Information (FoI) requests have shown that 91% of "matches" made by South Wales Police's facial recognition technology have been misidentifications.

Facial recognition technology used by London's Metropolitan Police also incorrectly identified members of the public in 96% of matches made between 2016 and 2018.

Biometric photos of members of the public were wrongly identified as potential criminals during eight incidents across the two-year period, FoI requests have revealed.

"Who knows how many thousands of people have had their face mapped and image stored and don't even know it?" said Bridges.

"Who knows how many of us are now part of a police line-up that carries a huge risk of injustice?

"This is policing without constraint, not policing by consent."

Dr Joe Purshouse, from University of East Anglia's School of Law, has analysed how the police have been using facial recognition surveillance, and agrees that it is "troubling".

“The technology is particularly intrusive as it allows for people to be identified and tracked in real space, without their knowledge," he said.

“There are also doubts over the accuracy of the technology, and its potential to misidentify people.

“Left to their own devices, the police forces trialling facial recognition came up with divergent, and sometimes troubling, policies and practices for the execution of their facial recognition surveillance operations.

“We concluded that the police were using this technology in a legal vacuum and recommended that the police should stop using facial recognition technology in public surveillance operations, until legislation could be drafted which would narrowly constrain its use.”

The case will be heard in the Administrative Court in Cardiff this week.