Big Brother Watch Profile picture
Sep 18, 2020 7 tweets 2 min read Read on X
🚨NEW: A law is in force *today* requiring venues to collect our personal data, or else be fined £500.

Pubs, cafés, restaurants, even workplace canteens must refuse entry to anyone who doesn’t want to share this data.

This change is huge. It's a mass recording of our movements.
As well as pubs, restaurants + workplace canteens, this law requires

sports clubs + gyms 🏋️‍♀️
heritage sites 🏰
arcades 🕹️
hotels 🏨
museums 🎨
libraries 📖
barbers 💇‍♂️
nail bars 💅
community + youth centres 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦
village halls 🏡

AND many other locations to collect personal data.
Venues must display Gov-issued QR codes which link to the NHS contact tracing app when it's launched next week.

Don’t have the app? You'll be required to leave contact details, the time + date of your visit, the size of your group + the name of any staff member you interact with
We always said a contact tracing app should be voluntary, non-discriminatory & non-punitive.

But the requirement to use the app to enter pubs, restaurants, gyms, libraries - or to give even more of your data if you don't use the app/have a smartphone - breaches those principles.
🛑 This new law is excessive, intrusive and poses serious privacy risks.🛑

The Government is increasingly relying on criminal sanctions to manage public health instead of trusting citizens to act responsibly with free will.

This approach is authoritarian. We will challenge it.
If you're adversely affected by this, whether as a customer, employee or business-owner, get in touch:

info @ bigbrotherwatch .org.uk
🚨Also new: if a restaurant, cafe, canteen, bar or pub has reason to believe the personal details you provide them are inaccurate (e.g. fake name/number) or incomplete, they are legally required to refuse you entry...

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More from @BigBrotherWatch

Sep 11
🚨BREAKING🚨

We've just published...'Checkpoint Britain: the dangers of digital ID and why privacy must be protected'

No one voted for digital ID, and the Government has no clear mandate to implement one.

Yet we're now on the brink of having every adult in the UK forced onto one, inserting the state into our everyday lives.

Today we can reveal the major risks of barcoding Britain.

Download & read our report⬇️
bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/campaigns/no2d…Checkpoint Britain report cover
Independent @YouGov polling commissioned by us reveals...

🔸63% of the British public DO NOT trust the government to keep their digital ID data safe

🔸Cyber attacks and privacy erosion are the top concerns associated with mandatory digital ID

Our research also reveals...

🔸There is little evidence to prove that a digital ID system would deter illegal immigration or employment fraud

🔸The government is already considering proposals that would require digital ID for employment and rent checks

🔸It could be used to track everyday interactions like voting online, paying bills, and shopping.Graph communicating 63% of Britons do not trust the government to keep their digital ID data safe
@YouGov 🆔"Digital ID would turn Britain into a checkpoint society and insert the state into our everyday interactions...

With far wider implications than the initial stated purposes of such a scheme"

Our interim director @rebecca_vincent writes in The Times⤵️
thetimes.com/uk/law/article…
Read 4 tweets
Aug 20
🚨BREAKING: The Met Police's use of live facial recognition is UNLAWFUL - the UK's human rights regulator believes

Today we can reveal to you that the EHRC will intervene in a landmark legal challenge to #StopFacialRecognition brought by our director @silkiecarlo & Shaun Thompson, a Londoner who was falsely flagged as a criminal by this tech.

"The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s intervention in this landmark legal challenge is hugely welcome, necessary, and incredibly timely.

The rapid proliferation of invasive live facial recognition technology without any legislation governing its use is one of the most pressing human rights concerns in the UK today...

Given this crucial ongoing legal action, the Home Office and police’s investment in this dangerous and discriminatory technology is wholly inappropriate and must stop.”

– Rebecca Vincent, Interim Director [@rebecca_vincent]Image
No other democracy in the world spies on its population with live facial recognition in such a cavalier and chilling way.

Help us urgently #StopFacialRecognition - our fundamental rights are at stake.

Your support makes the difference. Donate today⤵️
crowdfunder.co.uk/p/stop-facial-…
Read our full statement⤵️
bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/press-releases…
Read 4 tweets
Aug 7
🚨YOUR passport photo has secretly been turned into a facial recognition police mugshot - putting everyone's privacy at risk.

📢 We can announce today that we're set to pursue legal action against the Home Office & Met Police alongside @privacyint.

READ | telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/…Image
💥NEW: We’ve obtained fresh documents that reveal the number of facial recognition searches of the passport database SURGED from just 2 in 2020 to 417 in 2023.

This means that the Government is allowing police to search over 58 million photographs.

Nobody signed up for this.
"This astonishing revelation shows both our privacy and democracy are at risk from secretive AI policing, and that members of the public are now subject to the inevitable risk of misidentifications and injustice.

Police officers can secretly take photos from protests, social media, or indeed anywhere and seek to identify members of the public without suspecting us of having committed any crime.

This is an historic breach of the right to privacy in Britain that must end. We’ve taken this legal action to defend the rights of tens of millions of innocent people in Britain" - @silkiecarlo

Read our full statement⤵️
bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/press-releases…Image
Read 4 tweets
Jun 24
🚨 BREAKING 🚨

Iceland's rollout of facial recognition is chilling ❄️

Thousands of people will have their privacy rights violated just to buy basic necessities, and Iceland will turn its shoppers into suspects, making them submit to a biometric identity check as part of their daily lives.

Just last week we saw @Facewatch embroiled in a scandal when its dystopian tech was used to falsely accuse a woman of shoplifting, and throw her out of the store.

@icelandrichard should abandon this rollout and put its customers' privacy first, and the government must act to rein in the uncheck expansion of this intrusive technology.

#StopIcelandSpyingImage of Iceland store, with text that reads Iceland to begin scanning customers' faces using live facial recognition
The technology is provided by @Facewatch, a company whose system was linked to the wrongful accusation and ejection of a mum from a Home Bargains store earlier this month

theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/j…
@Facewatch Facewatch has also been investigated by the UK data watchdog, the Information Commissioner, who concluded last year that the firm had breached data protection laws on 8 different counts.

theguardian.com/technology/202…
Read 5 tweets
Jun 16
🔴LIVE from Parliament: We're now launching our pioneering report, Big Bank is Watching You: Preserving Privacy Amid the Rise of #CBDCs

Follow for updates ⤵️Image
"A #CBDC would mark a profound shift in our relationship to the state because they have the potential for the Government to insert into every transaction we make"

Jasleen Chaggar, our legal and policy officer and a co-author of this report, opens the discussion Image
"A #CBDC is a solution in search of a problem"

@DominicCaddick, co-author of the report and an economist at @NEF echoes the conclusion drawn by The Economic Affairs Committee Image
Read 7 tweets
Feb 3
🚨LIVE: Powers to spy on ALL of our bank accounts buried in the the Government’s Fraud, Error & Recovery Bill are being debated in Parliament now

These powers aimed at Britain's poorest will impact all of us, taking away our financial privacy & freedom

🧵FOLLOW BELOW 🧵 Image of Big Brother Watch and Winvisible campaigners outside Parliament
“The #Horizon scandal is a very recent reminder of how computer systems don’t always get it right”

@Helen_Whately brings up the Horizon scandal & questions how much the plans will cost banks. However, she says Conservative Party is broadly in favour of the intrusive powers as a continuation of their own policies.
"Last June an AI algorithm, incorrectly identified people that were potentially behaving fraudulently"

@Debbie_abrahams brings up similar recent examples of the dangers these powers pose, adding "that is really serious"
Read 9 tweets

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