Western Australia police launch trial of NEC’s live facial recognition
Western Australia Police have begun a trial of live facial recognition technology supplied by NEC, marking a significant expansion of real-time biometric surveillance by Australian law enforcement. The pilot tests the system's capacity to identify individuals in public spaces as they move through camera fields.
Why this matters: Live facial recognition is not like a database search after the fact. It scans people who have done nothing wrong, in real time, just because they walked into frame. Everyone in range is checked. Most will never know. Western Australia has not published clear rules about who ends up on watchlists, how long data is kept, or what happens when the system gets it wrong. NEC's technology has a mixed record on accuracy across different demographics. A trial that starts without strong independent oversight rarely stays a trial.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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