Police Scotland have announced that they will move ahead with plans to introduce live facial recognition. While this technology branded as Orwellian by rights groups had been introduced in England and Wales, it had never been rolled out in Scotland.
Fourteen rights and equalities groups led by civil liberties organisation Big Brother Watch have released a joint statement urging Police Scotland to abandon these plans setting out concerns around privacy and discrimination.
Madeleine Stone, Big Brother Watch’s Senior Advocacy Officer said, “live facial recognition technology has no place in a democratic society and poses a grave risk to the rights and freedoms of the Scottish public.”
The joint letter states:
“Live facial recognition has faced criticism from rights and equalities groups across the globe due to its impact on privacy, freedom of expression and its well-documented racial and gender biases”
“International research, as well as testing of the Metropolitan Police and South Wales Police’s facial recognition algorithm, has identified disproportionately higher inaccuracy rates when attempting to identify people of colour and women.”
The National – Police Scotland urged to ‘immediately abandon’ live facial recognition