Documents obtained by Big Brother Watch reveal that police are increasingly searching 150 million UK passport and immigration database with facial recognition. Jointly with Privacy International, Big Brother Watch are set to pursue legal action against the Home Office & the Met Police. Silkie Carlo, the group’s director said:
“The Government has taken all of our passport photos and secretly turned them into mugshots to build a giant, Orwellian police database without the public’s knowledge or consent and with absolutely no democratic or legal mandate.
“This has led to repeated, unjustified and ongoing intrusions on the entire population’s privacy.
“This astonishing revelation shows both our privacy and democracy are at risk from secretive AI policing, and that members of the public are now subject to the inevitable risk of misidentifications and injustice.”
The Telegraph – Police raid passport photo data in ‘historic breach of privacy’
Biometric Britain – Clandestine facial recognition searches of civil databases by UK police surge
The Register – UK secretly allows facial recognition scans of passport, immigration databases