Police could use passport photos in facial recognition roll-out
Searches of British passport photos for facial recognition rose from 2 in 2020 to 417 in 2023 amid concerns over lack of clear legal basis and public awareness.
- Police forces are querying British passport and immigration databases for mass facial-recognition searches without a clear legal basis or parliamentary knowledge, Big Brother Watch says.
- Data indicates an escalation as searches of the passport database climbed sharply from two to 417, while police and private companies rolled out face‑recognition cameras and took faceprints of millions.
- Applicants' submitted images are being repurposed into police facial-recognition systems, while police officers also capture photos from protests and social media for identifications.
- Campaigners warn police surveillance systems using passport photos risk profound privacy invasions, misidentification and injustice for individuals with passports.
- Big Brother Watch is urging the public to support legal work challenging police forces' facial recognition use without consent, demanding transparency and accountability this past week.
19 Articles
19 Articles
UK Facial Recognition Rollout
The idea sounds like something out of a dystopian TV drama, yet it could soon become everyday reality in towns and cities across the UK. Police may be given expanded powers to use live facial recognition cameras, with the ability to check images of suspected criminals against government databases – including the passport photos of roughly 45 million Britons. These proposals are part of a new… Source
Facial recognition to be expanded as views sought to shape new laws
A 10-week consultation is being launched that will ask for views on how the technology should be regulated and how to protect people’s privacy. Ministers are seeking to ramp up police use of facial recognition to fight crime and are asking people how it should be used to form new laws. A 10-week consultation is being launched that will ask for views on how the technology should be regulated and how to protect people’s privacy. The Government is …
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