Responding to reports that the Metropolitan Police are considering using Live Facial Recognition at the Coronation, Big Brother Watch’s Legal and Policy Officer Madeleine Stone said:
“Live facial recognition is an authoritarian mass surveillance tool that turns the public into walking ID cards. This Orwellian technology may be used in China and Russia but has no place on the streets of Britain, least not during the Coronation.
“The hundreds of thousands of innocent people attending this historic event must not be treated like suspects in a lineup and subjected to biometric police identity checks. The use of live facial recognition would have a serious chilling effect on the right to free speech on a day when thousands will be considering celebrating or protesting.”
“Analysis of the Met’s own figures show that 86% of facial recognition flags are inaccurate. If this dangerously inaccurate technology is deployed at the Coronation it is unlikely to have any policing benefits but would have a serious cost to police resources and the public’s privacy rights, meaning many people will be wrongly flagged as criminals and forced to prove their innocence.
“Live facial recognition is not referenced in a single UK law, has never been debated in parliament, and is one of the most privacy-intrusive technologies ever used in British policing. This dystopian technology should not be anywhere near the Coronation. The Home Secretary should urgently ban police use of live facial recognition.”
Notes:
Spokespeople are available for interviews. Contact Big Brother Watch’s 24h media line on 07730439257 or email info@bigbrotherwatch.org.uk