PETITION
We’re sending a message to the Home Secretary and Met police chief Mark Rowley that facial recognition has no place in British policing.
We’re urging them to immediately stop using authoritarian live facial recognition, and if enough of us join the call, we can make them rethink. Sign (and share!) here:
SIGN HERE
Biometric Britain
The boom in facial recognition technology in the UK, operating in a largely lawless space, is a mortal threat to privacy as we know it.
To power the fight back, we’ve complied detailed research and analysis on the spread of this technology – and what needs to be done to combat it. Read more here:
The facts
Tens of millions of people in the UK
SCANNED
Police, shopping centres, concerts, museums, stadiums, bars found to have used the surveillance
There is no law for facial recognition in the UK
Met and South Wales Police facial recognition over 89% inaccurate 2016-2023
3,000+ people wrongly identified by police facial recognition
Facial recognition banned in San Francisco + 13 other cities
Research shows that facial recognition discriminates against women and people of colour.
TAKE ACTION
1
JOIN US
The strength of our campaigns to reclaim privacy and defend freedom relies on your support. Join the fight for the future — support us today.
2
SIGN THE PETITION
Tell the Met Commissioner and Minister for Policing to stop using facial recognition surveillance now. If enough of us sign, they’ll be under pressure to reconsider the decision. Please share the petition with as many people as you can.
3
SUBSCRIBE
Don't miss out on live facial recognition alerts! Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed on campaign actions.
Got a tip? If you have any information about facial recognition surveillance in the UK that might help our investigation, please let us know. Email us at info@bigbrotherwatch.org.uk or text us on Signal at +44 7514913266
Our campaign
We’re leading a national campaign against facial recognition, bringing together 65 parliamentarians from across the political spectrum and 32 of the country’s leading rights and race equality groups to stand together against this surveillance expansion and call for an immediate stop to live facial recognition surveillance of public spaces by police and private companies in the UK.
This cross-party action is backed by former Brexit Secretary David Davis MP, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Ed Davey, Green MP Caroline Lucas and former Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti among others.
| Name | Party |
|---|---|
| David Davis MP | Conservative |
| Christine Jardine MP | Liberal Democrat |
| Ed Davey MP | Liberal Democrat |
| Wera Hobhouse MP | Liberal Democrat |
| Layla Moran MP | Liberal Democrat |
| Tim Farron MP | Liberal Democrat |
| Mick Whitley MP | Liberal Democrat |
| Jamie Stone MP | Liberal Democrat |
| John McDonnell MP | Labour |
| Caroline Lucas MP | Green |
| Tommy Sheppard MP | Scottish National Party |
| Zarah Sultana MP | Labour |
| Valerie Vaz MP | Labour |
| Alistair Carmichael MP | Liberal Democrat |
| Chris Green MP | Conservative |
| Daisy Cooper MP | Liberal Democrat |
| Wendy Chamberlain MP | Liberal Democrat |
| Sarah Green MP | Liberal Democrat |
| Sarah Olney MP | Liberal Democrat |
| Munira Wilson MP | Liberal Democrat |
| Ian Byrne MP | Labour |
| Dawn Butler MP | Labour |
| Clive Lewis MP | Labour |
| Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP | Labour |
| Nadia Whittome MP | Labour |
| Rachael Maskell MP | Labour |
| Apsana Begum MP | Labour |
| Beth Winter MP | Labour |
| Ian Lavery MP | Labour |
| Richard Foord MP | Liberal Democrat |
| Richard Burgon MP | Labour |
| Rebecca Long Bailey MP | Labour |
| Andy McDonald MP | Labour |
| Joanna Cherry MP | Scottish National Party |
| Charles Walker MP | Conservative |
| Marcus Fysh MP | Conservative |
| Kim Johnson MP | Labour |
| Baroness Bennett | Green |
| Lord Strasburger | Liberal Democrats |
| Lord Clement-Jones | Liberal Democrats |
| Baroness Jenny Jones | Green |
| Baroness Shami Chakrabarti | Labour |
| Lord Strathcarron | Conservative |
| Lord Freyberg | Crossbench |
| Lord Vaux | Crossbench |
| Lord Hendy | Labour |
| Lord Sikka | Labour |
| Baroness Ludford | Liberal Democrats |
| Lord German | Liberal Democrats |
| Lord Beith | Liberal Democrats |
| Lord Marks KC | Liberal Democrats |
| Baroness Hussein-Ece | Liberal Democrats |
| Lord Dholakia | Liberal Democrats |
| Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville | Liberal Democrats |
| Baroness Hamwee | Liberal Democrats |
| Baroness Harris of Richmond | Liberal Democrats |
| Lord Oates | Liberal Democrats |
| Lord Storey | Liberal Democrats |
| Baroness Blower | Labour |
| Baron Davies of Brixton | Labour |
| Baron Woodley | Labour |
| Lord Skidelsky | Crossbench |
| Baroness Fox of Buckley | |
| Lord Alton of Liverpool | Crossbench |
OUR MISSION IS SIMPLE:
We’re fighting to urgently stop facial recognition surveillance from being used in our public spaces, whether by police or private companies. And we’re fighting to win.
HERE'S HOW WE'RE DOING IT:
INVESTIGATION
Our investigation into facial recognition in the UK is ongoing and we put information into the public domain as soon as we can. We work with media partners, including the BBC, to widely publish our findings. We have also passed on all of our findings to the data regulator, the ICO, and pressed them to investigate.
PROTESTS
When we are tipped off about future facial recognition deployments we attend to demonstrate, hand out leaflets, and observe any police/security action. It’s important we observe the police, so we can record and intervene in incidents like this. Want to join in? Sign up to our email updates
PARLIAMENT
We’re taking the campaign to the heart of power. We’ve launched two groundbreaking reports in Parliament, hosting high-profile MPs and Peers. We’ve since supported MPs tabling questions in parliament, we’ve circulated briefings for debates, and we’ve exposed the dangers of facial recognition in evidence for parliamentary committees and government working groups. (Find it all here.) We’ll continue pushing MPs and Peers to speak out against the use of facial recognition wherever we can.
BUILDING A MOVEMENT
We’re leading a national campaign against facial recognition, bringing together the country’s rights and race equality groups and politicians from across the political spectrum to stand together against this surveillance expansion. In September 2019, we issued a call for an urgent stop to facial recognition surveillance by police and private companies supported by 25 organisations.
LEGAL CHALLENGE
We initiated legal action in 2018 which forced the Met Police to slow down with facial recognition surveillance, be more transparent about its use — including giving us forewarning — and develop policies as to when they can and can’t use it.
But now, following Ed Bridges’ successful legal challenge to South Wales Police in 2020, we’re building the strongest fight we can against facial recognition in parliament and the press. Because as far as we've come, it's not enough - we need to BAN face surveillance.
REPORTS
We’re leading the fight back against the use of facial recognition surveillance in the UK – and our campaign is built on extensive expertise and analysis. We’ve published two groundbreaking reports, in 2018 and 2023, that lay out where, when and how facial recognition is being used and what needs to change.
IN THE MEDIA
What is facial recognition surveillance?
FACEPRINTS
This works by rapidly creating a biometric “faceprint” of your face – sensitive data that uniquely identifies you – much like a fingerprint, and comparing this for similar matches on a database.
Reference databases have been built from various sources including:
- CCTV images of “suspects” or “problem” individuals
- Subsets of the police’s enormous database of 19 million custody images, which includes vast numbers of photos of innocent people
- police intelligence databases, including innocent people with suspected mental health problems and political campaigners
But the possibilities are endless...
YOUR ONLINE LIFE UNLOCKED
Some facial recognition companies even check faces against internet data in real-time, trawling the entire internet to identify any photos of you, posted anywhere.
UK Facial recognition in detail
London
The Metropolitan Police ran trials across the city for 4 years, from 2016-2019. The force paused its use during the pandemic, but is now deploying it again in central London. The Met, along with British Transport Police, also gave photos to the King’s Cross Estate for a secret use of the surveillance that went on for 2+ years, 2015/6-2018.
Metropolitan Police
We have investigated the Metropolitan Police’s use of live facial recognition since ‘trials’ began in 2016. The force announced plans to roll out facial recognition across the capital in January 2020, vowing to begin using it operationally within weeks. These plans were delayed by the Covid pandemic, but in early 2022, the force started to deploy the technology again.
You can read the damning Independent Review of the Met’s facial recognition use and related media coverage.
| Event | Date | True Positives | False Positives | Wrong Interv. | Notes | Media |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea Premium League game | 06/11/2023 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Two vans were deployed around the Tottenham Hotspur stadium. Of the two true positive alerts, only one arrest was made. There was one false alert. 54,215 people were scanned. | Link |
| North London Derby | 24/09/2023 | 4 | 0 | 0 | This was the first time live facial recognition was deployed at a football event in London. The facial recognition van was located directly outside Highbury and Islington station, giving the public limited chance to avoid the zone of recognition. The Football Supporters Association voiced their opposition to the deployment. 4 individuals were identified, but only 3 arrests were made. 11,894 people were on the watchlist. | Link |
| Wardour Street, Soho | 09/09/2023 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11,982 people on the watchlist. | ... |
| Camden High Street | 08/09/2023 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 11,916 people on the watchlist. 2 individuals were identified, but only one arrest was made. | Link |
| Wardour Street, Soho | 18/08/2023 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 11,876 people on the watchlist. 3 individuals were identified, but only 2 people were arrested. | Link |
| Wardour Street, Soho | 11/08/2023 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 12,056 people on the watchlist. | ... |
| Trooping the Colour | 17/06/2023 | 0 | 1 | 0 | One individual was stopped, which officers told Big Brother Watch staff was due to the individual being on a 'fixated threat' list. This is a joint NHS and police list of individuals with specific mental health concerns. They were not wanted or suspected of any criminal activity and the individual was not arrested. 10, 412 people on the watchlist. |
Link |
| Charles II Coronation | 06/05/2023 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The Met announced the day before the Coronation that it was "considering" using the technology, only to confirm its use half an hour later. This was the largest live facial recognition deployment in UK history, with three vans in different locations in central London and 70,000 faces scanned, sparking considerable backlash. Met deployment record states that one true match led to "no further action", meaning it is possible the individual should not have been on the watchlist. 10,451 people on the watchlist. | Link |
| Highbury and Islington Station | 20/04/2023 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9,816 people on the watchlist. Met deployment record states that the true match led to "no further action", meaning it is possible the individual should not have been on the watchlist. | Link |
| Camden | 14/04/2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9,744 people on the watchlist. | Link |
| Camden | 06/04/2023 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9,764 people on the watchlist. | Link |
| Piccadilly Circus | 28/07/2022 | 0* | 0 | 0 | 6,858 people on the watchlist. Accuracy testing with paid actors. The Met's Territorial Support Group, who specialise in 'public order policing', were present throughout the deployment and were armed with tasers. | Link |
| Oxford Circus | 16/07/2022 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6,747 people on the watchlist. Accuracy testing with paid actors and police cadets as young as 14. | Link |
| Oxford Circus | 14/07/2022 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6,713 people on the watchlist. Accuracy testing with paid actors and police cadets as young as 14. We observed the incorrect flagging of a French exchange student, who had only been in the country for a few days. Police asked him to show his ID and released him. A man who had recently been released from prison was also flagged, asked to show ID and had his fingerprints taken. After being surrounded and held by police for some time, police were forced to let him go. Although it was a correct match, the watchlist used was evidently out of date. We were joined by Privacy International, Big Brother Watch supporters and Zack Polanski, Green London Assembly Member. | Link |
| Oxford Circus | 07/07/2022 | 3* | 0 | 0 | 6,699 people on the watchlist. Accuracy testing with paid actors and police cadets as young as 14. | Link |
| Leicester Square | 10/03/2022 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6,793 people on the watchlist. We observed the deployment and saw that the facial recognition camera was broken for several hours. Police used floodlights for the first time, allowing them to scan people after sunset. | Link |
| Oxford Circus | 28/01/2022 | 7* | 1 | 4* | 9,756 people on the watchlist. We witnessed a young black teenager stopped by police for approx. 20 minutes and asked for ID/fingerprints following a misidentification. We also witnessed a young black male being stopped and almost arrested by police following a correct identification but wrongful inclusion on the watchlist. | Link |
| Oxford Circus | 27/02/2020 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 7,292 people on watchlist. 5 people wrongly stopped. | Link |
| Oxford Circus | 20/02/2020 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7,268 people on watchlist. Two men racially profiled, stopped and searched. | Link |
| Romford Town Centre | 14/02/2019 | 3 | 13 | 5 | We observed and demonstrated against this deployment. A 14y old black schoolboy in uniform was stopped and fingerprinted by police after being misidentified. | Link |
| Stratford Westfield | 11/02/2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5,816 people on watchlist. 30+ officers on duty, no matches. | Link |
| Romford Town Centre | 31/01/2019 | 3 | 7 | 2 | We observed and demonstrated against this deployment. A man was fined by police after covering his face as he walked past the cameras leading to huge media coverage. This was filmed by BBC and became a viral clip online with 2.5m+ views. | Link 1 Link 2 |
| Central London (Piccadilly and Leicester Square) | 17/12/2018 - 18/12/2018 | 2 | 12 | 2 | Large presence of plain clothes police officers, some of whom appeared to monitor our activity/leafleting and people’s reactions to our leaflets. See FOI | Link 1 Link 2 |
| Stratford Westfield | 26/07/2018 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Big Brother Watch and Green Party co-leader Sian Berry observed this deployment. See FOI: Link PDF. | Link |
| Stratford Westfield | 28/06/2018 | 0 | 5 | 1 | The misidentification was of a young black man. Liberty observed this deployment. See also FOI. | Link |
| Port of Hull docks (with Humberside Police) | 13/06/2018 - 14/06/2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | See FOI. ‘Blue list’ testing uses police officers as subjects. | n/a |
| Remembrance Day 2017 | 11/11/2017 | 1 | 6 | 1 | The watchlist for this deployment was of 50 people on a police intelligence list (‘fixated individuals’) who are suspected of having mental health problems. None was wanted for arrest or banned from the event. Police told our director that they ejected the individual who was correctly identified from the event. Also see FOI and FOI. | Link |
| Notting Hill Carnival 2017 | 26/08/2017 - 27/08/2017 | 1 | 95 | ? | We observed this deployment and witnessed the tech produce 2 false positive matches of innocent women with men on the watchlist in under 10 mins of observing inside the van. The one correct identification was in relation to outdated data i.e. an individual who was no longer wanted. The facial recognition cameras were mounted on a van that was concealed behind iron sheeting, making it a semi-covert deployment in practice.Also see FOI and FOI. | Link |
| Notting Hill Carnival 2016 | 28/08/2016 - 29/08/2016 | 0 | 1 | ? | We are very sceptical that these statistics, which we obtained using FOIA, are correct. As such an early use of the technology, the Met is bound to have hit many false positives. Also see FOI and FOI 2. | n/a |
Privately owned spaces
King’s Cross
One of the country’s busiest train stations and now a buzzing office and retail area, the King’s Cross Estate was found to have secretly used live facial recognition surveillance by the Financial Times. The expose in August 2019 followed a tip and was later confirmed by the property development company Argent. Both the Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police denied any involvement whatsoever – but later admitted supplying the company with photos for the watchlist. The Met admitted supplying 7 photos in a September 2019 report; BTP admitted supplying photos in response to our FOI in October 2019. According to the Met, the deployment went on for 2 years, from May 2016 to March 2018. However, property developers Argent had initially said the technology, supplied by NEC (the same provider used by police) was in place from 2015.
Gordon’s Wine Bar
This popular wine bar on Embankment uses live facial recognition surveillance supplied by FaceWatch. The bar’s owner also owns FaceWatch.
Cardiff
South Wales Police has used and continues to use, facial recognition surveillance more than any other police force in the UK. Its use was subject to a legal challenge by Cardiff resident, Dr. Ed Bridges, and the Court of Appeal found the technology had not been used in accordance with the law.
South Wales Police, supported by millions of pounds in Home Office funding (see our report), has used the technology since May 2017 when it monitored fans attending the UEFA Champions League, misidentifying and photographing over 2,500 people. The force typically targets sports fans, concert-goers and shoppers with the surveillance.
| Event | Date | True positives | False positives | Wrong interv. | Notes | Media |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Op Calibre Day of Action - Pontypridd | 24/11/2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 646 people were on the watchlist and 54,215 people were scanned. | ... |
| Op Calibre Day of Action - Bridgend | 22/11/2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 595 people were on the watchlist and12,196 people were scanned. | ... |
| Chemical Brothers concert | 20/11/2023 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 618 people were on the watchlist and 2,966 people were scanned. | ... |
| Op Sceptre Day of Action – Swansea City Centre | 17/11/2023 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 true positive matches were made, but it led to only 1 arrest. 704 people were on the watchlist and 15,404 people were scanned. | ... |
| Wales v Barbarians | 04/11/2023 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Despite being 1 true positive match, no arrests were made. 656 people on the watchlist and 70,188 people were scanned. | ... |
| Chemical Brothers concert | 09/09/2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 554 people on the watchlist. | ... |
| Scooter concert | 08/09/2023 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 564 people on the watchlist. | ... |
| Wales v South Africa (World Cup warm-up) | 19/08/2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 people on the watchlist. | ... |
| Wales v England (World Cup warm-up) | 05/08/2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 578 people on the watchlist. | ... |
| Swansea Airshow | 02/07/2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 440 people on the watchlist. | ... |
| Swansea Airshow | 01/07/2023 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 560 people on the watchlist. Three individuals were flagged, only one was arrested. | ... |
| Harry Styles concert | 21/06/2023 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 530 people on the watchlist. One individual was flagged but not arrested. | ... |
| Harry Styles concert | 20/06/2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 529 people on the watchlist. | ... |
| Beyonce concert | 17/05/2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 526 people on the watchlist. | Link |
| Speedway | 13/08/2022 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 245 people on the watchlist. Accuracy testing with paid actors. | ... |
| Wales v Italy (Six Nations Rugby) | 21/03/2022 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 607 people on the watchlist. | ... |
| Slipknot (Motorpoint Arena) | 22/01/2020 | n/a | n/a | n/a | Ironically, Slipknot all wear masks. | ... |
| Cardiff City v Swansea City (Cardiff) | 12/01/2020 | n/a | n/a | n/a | Fans protested again, with some wearing masks. Welsh Police & Crime Commissioners spoke out against it, calling it “invasive, disproportionate” and “a step too far”. | ... |
| Swansea City v Cardiff City (Swansea) | 27/10/2019 | n/a | n/a | n/a | The watchlist for this event relating to Football Banning Orders. Fans protested ahead of the match and during. Police didn't correctly match anyone. | ... |
| Elvis Festival (Porthcawl) | 28/09/2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | No matches made. | ... |
| Elvis Festival (Porthcawl) | 27/09/2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | No matches made. | ... |
| Neath Day of Action | 27/09/2019 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Op SCEPTRE | 11/09/2019 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Op SCEPTRE | 05/09/2019 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Wales v Ireland (Six Nations Rugby) | 31/08/2019 | 3 | 13 | 0 | ... | ... |
| County Lines | 23/08/2019 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Northern Retail | 17/08/2019 - 19/08/2019 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Wales v England (Six Nations Rugby) | 17/08/2019 | 7 | 7 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Wales Airshow | 07/07/2019 | 2 | 5 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Wales Airshow | 06/07/2019 | 3 | 4 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Take That | 08/06/2019 | 2 | 5 | 0 | ... | ... |
| 'Operation Sceptre' | 07/06/2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Spice Girls Concert | 27/05/2019 | 6 | 9 | 1 | ... | ... |
| 'Operation Cristo' | 16/05/2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| 'Day of Action' (location unknown) | 09/05/2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Catfish and the Bottlemen concert (Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff) | 05/05/2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| 'Day of Action' (location unknown) | 09/04/2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| 'Day of Action' (location unknown) | 05/04/2019 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ... | ... |
| Wales v Ireland (Six Nations Rugby) | 16/03/2019 | 0 | 7 | 1 | ... | ... |
| Wales v England (Six Nations Rugby) | 23/02/2019 | 4 | 8 | 1 | ... | ... |
| 'Operation Cristo' (Location unknown) | 10/01/2019 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| 'Operation Fulcrum' (Location unknown) | 18/12/2018 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ... | ... |
| 'Operation Encore' | 04/12/2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| 'Operation Avalanche' (Location unknown) | 30/11/2018 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| 'Operation Avalanche' (Location unknown) | 28/11/2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Wales v South Africa Rugby (Cardiff) | 24/11/2018 | 4 | 1 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Wales v Tonga Rugby (Cardiff) | 17/11/2018 | 2 | 0 | 1 | ... | ... |
| Wales v Australia Rugby (Cardiff) | 10/11/2018 | 6 | 1 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Wales v Scotland Rugby (Cardiff) | 03/11/2018 | 9 | 1 | 1 | ... | ... |
| Elvis Festival (Porthcawl) | 28/09/2018 – 30/09/2018 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Ed Sheeran concerts (Millenium Stadium, Cardiff) | 21/06/2018 - 24/06/2018 | 8 | 10 | 2 | ... | ... |
| The Rolling Stones (Millenium Stadium, Cardiff) | 15/06/2018 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ... | ... |
| Stereophonics (Cardiff City Stadium) | 09/06/2018 | 0 | 5 | 1 | ... | ... |
| BBC Biggest Weekend (Singleton Park, Swansea) | 26/05/2018 - 27/05/2018 | 2 | 10 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Arms Fair demonstration (Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff) | 27/03/2018 | 1 | 0 | 0 | The watchlist at this protest included campaigners for intelligence purposes – i.e. people not wanted by police at all. See our FOI and FOI 2. | ... |
| Wales v France Rugby (Cardiff City Centre) | 17/03/2018 | 6 | 7 | 4 | ... | ... |
| Wales v Italy Rugby (Cardiff) | 11/03/2018 | 0 | 19 | 7 | ... | ... |
| Stereophonics (Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff) | 07/03/2018 | 0 | 5 | 1 | ... | ... |
| Wales v Scotland Rugby (Cardiff) | 03/02/2018 | 6 | 7 | 1 | ... | ... |
| Royal Visit - Prince Harry (Cardiff) | 18/01/2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Operation Malecite 'Festive Deployment' (Swansea) | 22/12/2017 | 2 | 0 | 0 | The watchlist for this event comprised 9 individuals, none of whom were wanted for arrest. Link (PDF) | ... |
| Operation Fulcrum 'Day of Action' (Cardiff) | 21/12/2017 | 8 | 5 | 1 | Cardiff resident, Dr. Ed Bridges, who was scanned at this deployment successfully challenged it in court, with the Court of Appeal finding that its use had not been in accordance with the law. | ... |
| Liam Gallagher Concert (Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff) | 13/12/2017 | 6 | 0 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Kasabian Concert (Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff) | 04/12/2017 | 4 | 3 | 0 | Despite publicly stating they would only target serious crime, police scanned every concert-goer in an attempt to catch phone thieves. These cameras are now operating at all gigs at the Motorpoint Arena. | ... |
| Wales v South Africa Rugby (Cardiff) | 02/12/2017 | 5 | 18 | 5 | ... | ... |
| Wales v New Zealand Rugby (Cardiff) | 25/11/2017 | 3 | 9 | 2 | ... | ... |
| Wales v Georgia Rugby (Cardiff) | 18/11/2017 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ... | ... |
| Wales v Australia Rugby (Cardiff) | 11/11/2017 | 6 | 42 | 2 | ... | ... |
| Anthony Joshua v Kubrat Pulev Boxing (Cardiff) | 28/10/2017 | 5 | 46 | 2 | ... | ... |
| Operation Fulcrum 'Day of Action' (Cardiff) | 19/10/2017 | 5 | 11 | 2 | ... | ... |
| Elvis Festival (Porthcawl) | 23/09/2017 - 24/09/2017 | 10 | 7 | 1 | Police deployed a ‘community engagement’ vehicle, with festival-goers invited to be scanned and matched against a watchlist of images of Elvis. Link (PDF) | ... |
| UEFA Champions League Final Week (Cardiff Airport, Train station and City Centre) | 29/05/2017 - 03/06/2017 | 173 | 2,554 | 5 | Thousands of people were wrongly matched over this four day deployment. | ... |
Swansea
South Wales Police used live facial recognition at a Swansea City v Cardiff City football match at Liberty Stadium in October 2019, with a watchlist relating to Football Banning Orders. This resulted in fan protests ahead of the match and during. The force did not correctly match anyone.
Other cities
Hull
Humberside Police collaborated with Metropolitan Police to deploy live facial recognition at Hull docks in June 2018. No one was identified (except police officers aka ‘blue list’ for experimental purposes). (Link PDF)
Leicestershire
Leicestershire Police was the first force in the UK to use live facial recognition software. This was at Download Festival in June 2015, where 90,000 festival-goers were checked against a Europol database.
Sheffield
Our investigation found South Yorkshire Police “supported” a facial recognition trial at Meadowhall, one of the biggest shopping centres in the North of England, in 2018. One trial lasted 2 days, the other 1 month. On our calculation, 2 million visitors could have been scanned. Read more on BBC, other press and see our FOIs.
Manchester
A secret six-month police trial at the Trafford Centre March-September 2018 was criticised by the Surveillance Camera Commissioner for being disproportionate. We estimate 15 million visitors could have been scanned. See press coverage, our op-ed, and our FOI.
Birmingham
Our investigation found evidence of facial recognition used at the Millennium Point conference centre in collaboration with police. Police denied this.
Our investigation found that the Millennium Point conference centre had used facial recognition, and its privacy policy said facial recognition was used “at the request of law enforcement”. This was surprising, since West Midlands police denied any involvement with live facial recognition in response to our FOI in November 2018.
In recent years, the area around the conference centre has seen demonstrations from trade unionists, anti-racism campaigners and football fans. We spoke to staff at the centre who gave no further information and said everything we needed to know was in the privacy policy. We spoke to the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office who told us they looked into the matter and were not aware of facial recognition being requested or used at Millennium Point at all. We sent FOIs to the force, who told us the information we requested was “not available in a readily retrievable format”.
Millennium Point issued a new privacy policy in September 2019, three weeks after we published our investigation, with references to facial recognition removed. The amendment log on the privacy policy details a change made on 5th September 2019: “Removed the paragraph regarding the use of facial recognition software at the request of law enforcement authorities”.
Liverpool
Our investigation found facial recognition surveillance had been used at Liverpool’s World Museum following police advice – but now both police and the museum deny it.
Our investigation found facial recognition surveillance had been used at Liverpool’s World Museum and this was detailed in their privacy policy. In August 2019, the museum told us in writing that the surveillance had been in place, ironically, during the Terracotta Warriors and the First Emperor exhibition in 2018 and that this was “following advice from Merseyside Police and local counter terrorism advisors”. This was surprising, since Merseyside police denied any involvement with live facial recognition in response to our FOI in November 2018.
The museum also told me that “National Museums Liverpool is currently testing feasibility of using similar technology in the future”. However, when we asked Merseyside Police they told us they “made no recommendations to National Museums/World Museum in relation to the use of Facial Recognition Technology and no photographs or database was provided”.
We asked the Museum to comment on the police’s denial, but they did not respond. We sent the Museum a FOI, to which they showed a total, unexplained reversal of the previous position and denied using facial recognition at all or having worked with the police.
Waltham Forest
The London council ran a secret trial of facial recognition surveillance for 3 days in 2019, without the knowledge of residents. It used 4 cameras in public spaces, including a train station and the borough’s main shopping street.
Bradford
We discovered that The Broadway shopping centre trialled facial recognition in August 2018, working with Customer Clever, Omega Security and Axis Communications. Customer Clever tweeted that the trial would identify “problem” individuals and “provide demographic information to the shopping centre”.
Brighton
We found evidence that facial recognition has been used at the Amex football stadium. This appears to be confirmed for the Albion v Crystal Palace match in January 2018.
As well as police forces, private companies are also rolling out facial recognition technology to scan and identify members of the public, largely without their consent or knowledge.
Southern Co-op
The Southern Co-op has been using live facial recognition since 2021 in the south of England. 35 stores across Portsmouth, Bristol, Hove, Bournemouth and London are using the technology to spy on shoppers. To our knowledge, this is the first supermarket in the UK to permanently install facial recognition. The technology is provided by Facewatch.
In 2022, we issued a legal complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office about Facewatch and the Southern Co-op’s use of this technology.
Frasers Group
Frasers Group, owned by Mike Ashley, also use Facewatch’s live facial recognition technology in a number of its stores, which include Flannels, House of Fraser, Sports Direct and USC. In 2023, we wrote to Mike Ashley with nearly 50 parliamentarians, calling on him to stop scanning customers.
PimEyes
PimEyes is an online facial recognition search engine, which trawls the open internet for facial images. The technology allows anyone to upload an image of a person to their website, which is then processed using facial recognition technology to find potential matches from an index of billions of photos from the internet.
PimEyes places no limits on the type of images that may be used for search and has no safeguards to prevent people using their service to extract a library of photos of someone other than themselves, including children. In 2022, we submitted a legal complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office about the risk PimEyes poses to data rights and privacy.
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Got a tip? If you have any information about facial recognition surveillance in the UK that might help our investigation, please let us know. Email us at info@bigbrotherwatch.org.uk or text us on Signal at +44 7514913266