Report calls for government guidance on whether and how to use intrusive technologyPolice forces are pushing ahead with the use of facial recognition systems in the absence of clear laws on whether, when or how the technology should be employed, a watchdog has said. With no legal framework in place it was left to the police to decide when the public benefit outweighed the “significant intrusion into an individual’s privacy” arising from facial recognition and other types of biometric identification, the report said. That is a rather important decision and if that isn’t for government then I don’t know what government is for.”The Metropolitan and South Wales police forces have both run trials of live facial recognition systems, which use mobile video cameras hooked up to facial recognition software to scan crowds for faces on a watchlist. If they later need to get clearance, to teach children for example, that arrest will show up.”Hannah Couchman, of Liberty, said: “It’s absolutely right that the rollout of facial recognition by individual forces has been chaotic and lawless. Invasive facial recognition goes light years beyond traditional CCTV.

Source: The Guardian June 27, 2019 10:30 UTC