UK Police Do Not Use Facial Recognition Ethically and Legally, Study Finds – Latest News Update

Use of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) by UK police forces ‘failed'[s] to meet the minimum ethical and legal standards,” according to a study from the University of Cambridge. After analyzing LFR use by Metropolitan (Met) and South Wales police, researchers concluded that the technology should be banned for use in ‘all public areas’.

LFR matches faces captured by security cameras to database photos to find matches. China and other non-democratic regimes have used the technology as part of their state surveillance tools.

British police have tested its use in multiple situations to fight crime and terrorism. In two cases, LFR was used by MET and the South Wales Police to scan crowds and compare faces to those on a criminal “watchlist”. In another case, agents used FRT smartphone apps to scan crowds and identify “wanted individuals in real time,” the paper said.

In those cases, the team found that the police kept information “out of sight” about how they use the data and information about demographics. That, in turn, has made it difficult to determine whether the tools promote racial profiling, while raising questions about accountability. “The police are not necessarily responsible or accountable for damage caused by facial recognition technology,” said lead author Evani Radiya-Dixit.

The Met has claimed that the latest algorithms have improved LRF accuracy, with false alerts below 0.08 percent, according to The Guardian. They boasted a 70 percent success rate through 2020, but a police expert from the University of Essex found it was actually only 19 percent. “That the appeals court explicitly stated in 2020 that the use of this technology by the South Wales police was ‘illegitimate’ makes it difficult to argue that this technology should be used,” he said.

However, the Met said his work was backed by law. “LFR is regulated by a number of legal sources. These sources of law together form a multi-layered legal structure for the use, regulation and supervision of the use of LFR by law enforcement agencies,” the report said. the guard. The British Parliament has yet to pass even though it has legislated on internet privacy.