Live Facial Recognition (LFR) used at Manchester’s Caribbean Carnival, police say
Greater Manchester Police deployed live facial recognition technology at the city's Caribbean Carnival, according to reports. The surveillance system scanned attendees in real time at the public cultural event.
Why this matters: Deploying live facial recognition at a Caribbean Carnival is not a neutral choice. It means scanning the faces of a predominantly Black crowd at a cultural celebration. Facial recognition systems have documented accuracy problems with darker skin tones, which means people at this event faced a higher chance of a false match and whatever stops, questions, or records that follow. Policing a festival is different from policing a crime scene. People attending a public celebration have not volunteered to be checked against a watchlist.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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