Government ministers are expected to consult the public on live facial recognition through nationwide guidance.
Silkie Carlo, Director of the civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said:
“The question the Home Office should really be asking is whether police should be spying on the public with live facial recognition cameras around the country at all. No other Western democracy watches its own citizens with facial recognition cameras in the same way as Britain is now doing.
“We all want safer streets, but these AI cameras are a serious assault on the public’s privacy and cannot solve the problems with our country’s criminal justice system. Combined with mandatory ID cards, live facial recognition could enable the most Orwellian street surveillance system this country has ever seen.”
The Times – Live facial recognition cameras set for use by police nationwide