Live facial recognition to be used at Blackpool Illuminations
Live facial recognition technology is set to be deployed at Blackpool Illuminations, a major public event in the UK. The system will scan the faces of attendees in real time.
Why this matters: This is surveillance of people who came to see a light show. No one buying a ticket to a public festival expects their face to be run through a recognition system. Live facial recognition at crowded events sweeps up everyone — not suspects, just people out for the evening. The UK has no comprehensive law governing this yet. When that framework is absent, decisions about scanning thousands of faces at a time get made quietly, by event organizers or police, with little public input and no clear way to challenge a false match.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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