Director Silkie Carlo wrote for openDemocracy on the Metropolitan Police’s adoption facial recognition technology that harks back to China’s surveillance state:
“What kind of world do you want to live in? One with privacy or one without? In the current technological revolution, this is an urgent question with a long overdue answer.
“New technologies are already transforming the world we live in. Our world is being shaped from above by Silicon Valley’s elite, who provide the surveillance capabilities, and governments, who decide how much they want to surveil us.
“One of the most privacy-altering technologies on the horizon is live facial recognition. This software, when added to ordinary-looking public space surveillance cameras, has the capacity to identify thousands of people in real-time and flag to the authorities anyone they choose.
“This technological leap means it is now possible for a state like the UK to track the whereabouts of its citizens at all times. It also means it isn’t only our activities that are now monitored, but our bodies. The minute details that make our faces our own, unique to us, are converted into data points to be analysed by an automated watcher. Each face is algorithmically cast over with suspicion, checked against the authority’s blacklist. Should you be here? Are you a criminal? Are you permitted?”
Read the full piece on openDemocracy.