Live facial recognition technology to be used by police in town
Police in an unspecified town are set to deploy live facial recognition technology, according to a report from Yahoo News UK. The announcement signals an expansion of real-time biometric surveillance into a local law enforcement context.
Why this matters: Live facial recognition is not like a speed camera. It scans everyone who walks past, not just people suspected of anything. Most people in that town did not vote on this and probably do not know it is happening. The technology has a documented record of misidentifying people, and the consequences of a false match can be serious. Once a system like this is running in public, the pressure to expand it is almost always stronger than the pressure to remove it.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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