subscribe: Posts | Comments

Stop automated facial recognition technology

0 comments

Ed Bridges, Liberty, South Wales Police, letter, automated facial recognition technology‘This sort of dystopian policing has no place in our city or any other.’

A Cardiff resident launched the first legal challenge to a UK police force’s use of automated facial recognition (AFR) technology earlier this week.

Ed Bridges – represented by human rights organisation Liberty – has written to Chief Constable Matt Jukes demanding South Wales Police immediately ends its ongoing use of automated facial recognition technology because it violates the privacy rights of everyone within range of the cameras, has a chilling effect on peaceful protest, discriminates against women and BAME people, and breaches data protection laws.

He will take South Wales Police to court if they refuse.

The letter to the Chief Constable of South Wales Police threatens legal action if the force does not stop using AFR technology, because it:

Violates the general public’s right to privacy by indiscriminately scanning, mapping and checking the identity of every person within the camera’s range, capturing personal biometric data without consent – and can lead to innocent people being stopped and questioned by police;

Interferes with freedom of expression and protest rights, having a chilling effect on people’s attendance of public events and peaceful protests. The presence of a police AFR van can be highly intimidating and affect people’s behaviour by sending the message that they are being watched and can be identified, tracked, and marked for further police action;

Discriminates against women and BAME people. Studies have shown AFR technology disproportionately misidentifies female and non-white faces, meaning they are more likely to be wrongly stopped and questioned by police and to have their images retained;

Breaches data protection laws. The processing of personal data cannot be lawful because there is no law providing any detailed regulation of AFR use. The vast majority of personal data processed by the technology is also irrelevant to law enforcement – belonging to innocent members of the public going about their business – and so the practice is excessive and unnecessary.

Bridges believes he was scanned by South Wales Police when he was a passer-by on a busy shopping street in Cardiff while doing his Christmas shopping and again at a peaceful anti-arms protest outside the Cardiff Arms Fair in March 2018.

He is calling on the public to back his challenge via crowdfunding site CrowdJustice, to make sure he is able to challenge this intrusive policing practice, which has been rolled out in a secretive process with no public participation or debate.

South Wales Police has used facial recognition in public spaces on at least 20 occasions since May 2017.

Surveillance cameras equipped with automated facial recognition software scan the faces of passers-by, making unique biometric maps of their faces. These maps are then compared to and matched with other facial images on bespoke police databases.

On one occasion – at the 2017 Champions League final in Cardiff – the technology was later found to have wrongly identified more than 2,200 people as possible criminals.

Images of all passers-by, whether or not they are true matches, are stored by the force for 31 days – potentially without their knowledge.

Members of the public scanned by AFR technology have not provided their consent and are often completely unaware it is in use.

It is not authorised by any law and the government has not provided any policies or guidance on it.

And no independent oversight body regulates its use.

Three UK police forces have used AFR technology in public spaces since June 2015 – South Wales, the Metropolitan Police and Leicestershire Police.

South Wales has been at the forefront of its deployment, using the technology in public spaces at least 20 times, and South Wales Police has admitted it has used AFR technology to target petty criminals, such as ticket touts and pickpockets outside football matches.

The force is due to deploy AFR technology again at a Rolling Stones concert on 15 June.

Bridges has given the police 14 days to respond or he will start legal proceedings.

He said: “The police are supposed to protect us, and their presence should make us feel safe – but I know first-hand how intimidating their use of facial recognition technology is.

“Indiscriminately scanning everyone going about their daily business makes our privacy rights meaningless.

“The inevitable conclusion is that people will change their behaviour or feel scared to protest or express themselves freely – in short, we’ll be less free.

“The police have used this intrusive technology throughout Cardiff with no warning, no explanation of how it works and no opportunity for us to consent.

“They’ve used it on protesters and on shoppers. This sort of dystopian policing has no place in our city or any other.”

Corey Stoughton, Liberty’s Advocacy Director, said: “Police’s creeping rollout of facial recognition into our streets and public spaces is a poisonous cocktail – it shows a disregard for democratic scrutiny, an indifference to discrimination and a rejection of the public’s fundamental rights to privacy and free expression.

“Scanning thousands of our faces and comparing them to shady databases with wildly inaccurate results has seriously chilling implications for our freedom and puts everyone in a continuous police line-up that carries a huge risk of injustice.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *