Can facial recognition be stopped?

In recent years, facial recognition technology has been introduced into our lives in various benign ways. The ease of using it to unlock our phones, make purchases, replace passwords, and manage our digital wallets is irresistible. Before long, perhaps, it will be integrated into our ‘smart’ homes, shops and airports, and available on all our devices.

Unfortunately, our love of convenience may be distracting us from the fact that facial recognition technology is the most sinister and uniquely dangerous surveillance mechanism yet invented. As it increasingly plays a central role in our lives, we are being lulled into accepting its use by the police. And if it is not resisted now, it will become a ubiquitous part of the security apparatus.

Today, a letter from more than 30 civil liberties groups including Amnesty International, Liberty, and Privacy International accused the Home Office and the police of bypassing parliament to introduce live facial recognition technology (LFRT). Recent draft guidance from the Surveillance Camera Commissioner and the College of Policing would allow police, local councils and enforcement agencies to use facial recognition across England and Wales; this guidance, the civil liberties campaigners say, has been given in defiance of court rulings against invasive filming.