London Police Deploy Live Facial Recognition at Chelsea-Tottenham Match
London's Metropolitan Police deployed live facial recognition technology at a Premier League match between Chelsea and Tottenham, scanning crowds in real time. The deployment represents another step in the force's expanding use of the technology at public events.
Why this matters: Tens of thousands of people went to a football match. None of them signed up to have their faces scanned by police. That is how live facial recognition works in public spaces: everyone gets checked, not just people police are looking for. The technology makes mass identification cheap and fast, which means the practical barrier to doing it constantly gets lower every time it is used. If attending a sporting event means submitting to a biometric check, the idea that public space is genuinely public starts to erode.
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