Police forces are secretly conducting facial recognition searches using the UK’s database of 46 million passport holders – an investigation by Liberty reveals.
It was also revealed that these searches could have begun as early as 2019 even though the announcement for “plans” to use the database for facial recognition searches came only in 2023 when Policing Minister Chris Philp addressed the audience at the Conservative party conference.
Just in the first 9 months of 2023, the investigation found that over 500 facial recognitions searches were made using the database.
Madeleine Stone, senior advocacy officer at Big Brother Watch said that this revelation is “deeply concerning” especially given that this intrusive technology has “no clear legal basis” for its use.
The Telegraph – Police secretly conducting facial recognition searches of passport database