LIVE: Our report and campaign launch on UK police use of automated facial recognition in Parliament is starting imminently (16.00).
We will be hearing from MPs, Lords and rights and race equality groups.
Our campaign: bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/all-campaigns/…
Follow this thread for updates.
We will be hearing from MPs, Lords and rights and race equality groups.
Our campaign: bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/all-campaigns/…
Follow this thread for updates.
Thanks to @DavidLammy MP for his support for our campaign and event and to @GreenJennyJones for organising the first parliamentary debate in the House of Lords recently.
Our Director @silkiecarlo opens with some of the disturbing facts:
UK police have been using automated facial recognition at public events since Notting Hill Carnival in 2016.
In that time, the Met police has an accuracy rate of 2%, while South Wales police is no better with 9%
UK police have been using automated facial recognition at public events since Notting Hill Carnival in 2016.
In that time, the Met police has an accuracy rate of 2%, while South Wales police is no better with 9%
MP:
This report and its findings are important work.
That you are 8x more likely to be stopped by police if you are a young black man is unacceptable - but 98% more likely to be wrongly stopped if identified by police automated facial recognition is even worse!
This report and its findings are important work.
That you are 8x more likely to be stopped by police if you are a young black man is unacceptable - but 98% more likely to be wrongly stopped if identified by police automated facial recognition is even worse!
MP:
“With these kind of numbers I struggle to work out why this is even deemed worthy of piloting”
“With these kind of numbers I struggle to work out why this is even deemed worthy of piloting”
Baroness @GreenJennyJones:
Police facial recognition is a serious risk to participation in protest...
....and it’s incredibly ineffective!
It takes up time and resources from an already cash-strapped police force.
Police facial recognition is a serious risk to participation in protest...
....and it’s incredibly ineffective!
It takes up time and resources from an already cash-strapped police force.
Lord Strasburger (@LordStras):
“British citizens are the most watched in the whole of the western democratic world”
...and police facial recognition is the next step.
“British citizens are the most watched in the whole of the western democratic world”
...and police facial recognition is the next step.
: Every terrorist attack has been perpetrated by people who were known to the authorities...
Terrorists and serious crims will learn to avoid this new tech + it will be the rest of us who are taking up space on police databases.
“All live facial recognition must stop”
Terrorists and serious crims will learn to avoid this new tech + it will be the rest of us who are taking up space on police databases.
“All live facial recognition must stop”
Lord @Paulscriven:
Police facial recognition fundamentally changes the relationship between the individual and the state:
“With this technology, you are guilty and till proven innocent”
Police facial recognition fundamentally changes the relationship between the individual and the state:
“With this technology, you are guilty and till proven innocent”
Lord @Paulscriven:
“We need to make sure my and your freedoms are not trampled in the relentless pursuit of technology”
“We need to make sure my and your freedoms are not trampled in the relentless pursuit of technology”
Samir Jeraj (@sajeraj) Policy and Practice Officer at the Race Equality Foundation:
Policing in general in the UK is racialised + certain communities are overpoliced...
...and this technology has the potential to be extremely suppressive of certain people’s freedoms.
Policing in general in the UK is racialised + certain communities are overpoliced...
...and this technology has the potential to be extremely suppressive of certain people’s freedoms.
Megan Goulding, privacy and technology lawyer @libertyhq:
“Liberty are fully in support of the call for an end to the use of automated facial recognition.”
“Such an invasive, discriminatory and invasive technology has no place on our streets.”
“Liberty are fully in support of the call for an end to the use of automated facial recognition.”
“Such an invasive, discriminatory and invasive technology has no place on our streets.”
Amanda Jacks, Football Supporters Federation (@FSF_FairCop):
Football fans are already subjected to extremely suppressive tactics by the police, despite fans being well behaved these days.
We are monitoring the situation in relation to police facial recognition.
Football fans are already subjected to extremely suppressive tactics by the police, despite fans being well behaved these days.
We are monitoring the situation in relation to police facial recognition.
Myles Jackman, Legal Director @OpenRightsGroup:
The Home Office’s claims of significant costs to remove innocent peoples’ custody images are laughable as they are also funding facial recognition.
“We are marching towards a de facto image database of all UK citizens”
The Home Office’s claims of significant costs to remove innocent peoples’ custody images are laughable as they are also funding facial recognition.
“We are marching towards a de facto image database of all UK citizens”
Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott):
“I’m a civil liberties person by nature.”
Police automated facial recognition has a 95% misidentification rate overall, and a high risk of misidentifying people of colour.
“I’m a civil liberties person by nature.”
Police automated facial recognition has a 95% misidentification rate overall, and a high risk of misidentifying people of colour.
:
“I’m all for using new technologies to fight crime, but I don’t want to use technologies which open up the possibility of misidentification.”
“I believe in intelligence led policing, but these misidentification rates are unacceptable.”
“I’m all for using new technologies to fight crime, but I don’t want to use technologies which open up the possibility of misidentification.”
“I believe in intelligence led policing, but these misidentification rates are unacceptable.”
Baroness Doreen Lawrence (@DLawrenceOBE):
“Police have been misidentifying black people and saying we look the same for years - now they just have a new technology that’s doing it.”
“This is a problem that’s been going on for years - this is just a new technology.”
“Police have been misidentifying black people and saying we look the same for years - now they just have a new technology that’s doing it.”
“This is a problem that’s been going on for years - this is just a new technology.”
:
Police databases don’t just have criminals on them. It’s all too easy to find yourself on a police database - e.g ‘extremists’ database for political protestors.
The gathering of this data by police has a suppressing effect on democratic protest.
Police databases don’t just have criminals on them. It’s all too easy to find yourself on a police database - e.g ‘extremists’ database for political protestors.
The gathering of this data by police has a suppressing effect on democratic protest.
Director @silkiecarlo:
“South Wales Police have admitted they use automated facial recognition merely for intelligence purposes - to track, monitor and record where people have been.”
“South Wales Police have admitted they use automated facial recognition merely for intelligence purposes - to track, monitor and record where people have been.”
If you would like to sign our statement on automated facial recognition, please go to our campaign page:
bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/all-campaigns/….
bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/all-campaigns/….
