{"id":46950,"date":"2019-08-18T02:03:42","date_gmt":"2019-08-18T00:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=46950"},"modified":"2019-08-18T02:03:52","modified_gmt":"2019-08-18T00:03:52","slug":"uk-privacy-advocates-describe-epidemic-of-facial-recognition-as-government-opens-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2019\/08\/uk-privacy-advocates-describe-epidemic-of-facial-recognition-as-government-opens-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"UK privacy advocates describe “epidemic” of facial recognition, as government opens investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The use of facial recognition technology in Britain\u2019s public spaces is reaching \u201cepidemic\u201d proportions,\u00a0according to an investigation<\/a> by the UK privacy group Big Brother Watch (BBW).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their findings were published\u00a0a day after news<\/a> that the government\u2019s Information Commissioner\u2019s Office (ICO) is investigating the use of facial recognition surveillance in a major new shopping development in the King\u2019s Cross district of London.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ICO said it is \u201cdeeply concerned about the growing use of facial recognition technology in public spaces,\u201d and London Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote to the company that owns the new Granary Square development, inquiring whether they believe their use of the technology is legal. Hundreds of thousands of visitors to the site may have already been scanned without their knowledge, according to The Independent<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July, the House of Commons science and technology committee called for authorities to stop using the technology until a legal framework could be established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScanning people\u2019s faces as they lawfully go about their daily lives in order to identify them is a potential threat to privacy that should concern us all,\u201d according to ICO commissioner Elizabeth Denham. \u201cThat is especially the case if it is done without people\u2019s knowledge or understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the new BBW report says that a range of other public spaces across the UK have been using facial recognition without informing visitors, including shopping centers, museums, conference centers, and other areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Sheffield\u2019s Meadowhall shopping center, the technology was briefly trialed in cooperation with authorities, scanning up to two million people. A spokesperson for its owner said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do not operate facial recognition at any of our assets. However, over a year ago we conducted a short trial at Meadowhall, in conjunction with the police, and all data was deleted immediately after the trial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trafford center in Manchester also scanned visitors with the technology for six months, until it was pressured by the surveillance camera commissioner to halt the practice. Up to 15 million visitors may have been scanned at the Trafford center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liverpool\u2019s World Museum trialed facial recognition during a 2018 exhibition, and told BBW that it is \u201ccurrently testing feasibility of using similar technology in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report also pointed to instances of facial recognition use at casinos and conference centers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to BBW director Silkie Carlo:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe collusion between police and private companies in building these surveillance nets around popular spaces is deeply disturbing. Facial recognition is the perfect tool of oppression and the widespread use we\u2019ve found indicates we\u2019re facing a privacy emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo by Stan Petersen<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The use of facial recognition technology in Britain\u2019s public spaces is reaching \u201cepidemic\u201d proportions,\u00a0according to an investigation by the UK privacy group Big Brother Watch (BBW).\u00a0 Their findings were published\u00a0a day after news that the government\u2019s Information Commissioner\u2019s Office (ICO) is investigating the use of facial recognition surveillance in a major new shopping development in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":46951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[10258,1527,411,337],"class_list":["post-46950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-finance","tag-facial-recognition","tag-privacy","tag-surveillance","tag-uk"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}