Trial of live facial recognition technology to catch criminals is putting people's privacy to the test
A live facial recognition trial is underway with the stated aim of identifying criminals in public spaces. The program is drawing scrutiny over its implications for the privacy of ordinary people who pass through the surveillance zone.
Why this matters: Live facial recognition does not wait for suspicion. It scans everyone and checks them against a database before they have done anything. That means innocent people are being identified, logged, and potentially flagged just for walking around in public. The burden should be on authorities to show this works, that it is accurate across all groups, and that data on non-matches is deleted immediately. A trial framed around catching criminals can quietly normalize blanket surveillance if no one is watching the watchers.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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