Police to deploy facial recognition cameras again in Peterborough
Police in Peterborough are set to deploy live facial recognition cameras again, continuing a pattern of rolling out the technology in UK public spaces. The move brings the surveillance system back to a city where it has been used before.
Why this matters: Live facial recognition does not wait for a suspect. It scans everyone who walks past and checks their face against a watchlist in real time. Most people it scans have done nothing wrong and never agreed to be checked. That is a significant shift in what it means to walk down a public street. The UK has no dedicated law governing this technology. Police departments are essentially setting their own rules. Until Parliament decides what is and is not allowed, every new deployment is an experiment run on the public without their consent.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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