MPs and peers call for ‘immediate stop’ to live facial recognition surveillance

In the U.K. MPs and peers are teaming up to demand an immediate end to the use of live facial recognition surveillance by police and private companies. Prominent figures such as David Davis, Sir Ed Davey, Caroline Lucas, and Shami Chakrabarti are among the 65 members of the House of Commons and House of Lords calling for a halt to the technology.

Leading the campaign is privacy advocate Big Brother Watch, with support from 31 organisations including Liberty, Amnesty International, and the Race Equality Foundation. This call to action comes as live facial recognition has been deployed by the police at major public events.

The statement released by the campaign highlights various concerns, including the infringement on human rights, potential discrimination, lack of safeguards, absence of evidence, questionable necessity or proportionality, insufficient legal basis, and lack of democratic oversight. The statement directly calls for the immediate cessation of live facial recognition for public surveillance by both police and private companies.

This announcement follows recent government plans to allow UK passport photos to be searchable by the police. Civil liberty activists have strongly criticised this proposal, calling it an "Orwellian nightmare" and a violation of British privacy principles. Despite the controversy, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley believes that facial recognition technology has the potential to revolutionise criminal investigations, much like DNA testing has.

- CyberBeat