London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 01, 2025

UK privacy advocates sound alarm on ‘dystopian’ live facial recognition technology used by police

UK privacy advocates sound alarm on ‘dystopian’ live facial recognition technology used by police

UK privacy and civil liberties campaigners say that the proposed changes to the code on the use of facial recognition systems by police leave a path for this technology to be abused by the state.

Last week, the Home Office drafted an update to the guidelines on the use of live facial recognition (LFR) to identify suspects in England and Wales through CCTV footage and match them with watch-lists.

Under the law, deployment of LFR must be justified and proportionate, while police must consider its effects on the privacy and freedoms of individuals.

However, the proposed changes to the code are very “bare bones”, Tony Porter, the UK government’s surveillance camera commissioner between 2014 and December 2020, told the BBC.

“I don't think it provides much guidance to law enforcement” or to the public “as to how the technology will be deployed”, Porter said.

During his tenure as commissioner, Porter wrote a 72-page guidance which extensively covered ethics and other aspects of the use of LFR and now says he was surprised that almost none of his proposals have landed in the update draft.

The UK media reported in late July and early August that 10 police forces were testing LFR to see if they could match people to faces recorded and photographed by CCTV cameras. Because of the sensitivities over such technology, the software was reportedly tested on video clips and images of the forces’ own officers.

The looming expansion of the use of LFR startled privacy advocates, who warned that the method could be used to track down people attending political rallies, among other things.

“This could turn encounters with the police, whether at protests, on the roads or during stop and search, into an Orwellian police lineup resulting in yet more intrusive information gathering,” Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, said last month.

Human rights lawyer Megan Goulding told the BBC that LFR will “turn public spaces into open-air prisons and entrench patterns of discrimination” against oppressed communities.

In 2020, Goulding worked on the defence team of Ed Bridges, a former Liberal Democrat councilor, who was filmed by a police van’s automatic facial recognition system when attending a peaceful protest. Bridges won the case, with the court saying that more checks and tighter regulations were needed in terms of deploying LFR by police.

Little has changed since then, Goulding said.

"One year since our case… these guidelines fail to properly account for either the court’s findings or the dangers created by this dystopian surveillance tool."


The government said the proposed revision of the CCTV code is mostly technical, aimed at making the guidelines clearer and simpler. In a statement to the media, the Home Office said the government is committed to “empowering the police to use new technology to keep the public safe, whilst maintaining public trust”, and that the ruling in the Bridges Case will also be reflected in the update.

UK Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham wrote on her blog in June that she was concerned about the potential of LFR in public places to “be used inappropriately, excessively or even recklessly”. She called for a fair balance between the lawful interests of the state and the rights of the general public.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
×