King’s Cross first admitted it had deployed facial identification technology in CCTV cameras in August, prompting an outcry about the ethics and legality of the move. It said facial recognition had been used in two cameras on pedestrian boulevards at the heart of the development, with the intention “to help ensure public safety”. Facial recognition technology maps faces in crowds and compares them to images of people on a watchlist, which can include suspects, missing people and persons of interest to the police. But there have been concerns about the regulatory framework governing facial recognition and its effectiveness, with studies suggesting it is less effective at accurately distinguishing black people. King’s Cross is owned by a consortium comprising the property developer Argent, Hermes Investment Management on behalf of BT Pensioners, and the Australian pension scheme AustralianSuper.

Source: The Guardian October 04, 2019 14:06 UTC