I have signed a joint pledge by Big Brother Watch, calling for an immediate stop to the use of live facial recognition in the UK.

Joint statement on police and private company use of facial recognition surveillance in the UK:

“The signatories to this call are rights organisations, race equality organisations, technology experts, and parliamentarians.

“We hold differing views about live facial recognition surveillance, ranging from serious concerns about its incompatibility with human rights, to the potential for discriminatory impact, the lack of safeguards, the lack of an evidence base, an unproven case of necessity or proportionality, the lack of a sufficient legal basis, the lack of parliamentary consideration, and the lack of a democratic mandate.

“However, all of these views lead us to the same following conclusion:

“We call on UK police and private companies to immediately stop using live facial recognition for public surveillance.”

Why am I concerned about live facial recognition?

Tens of millions of people in the UK are being scanned. That includes police, shopping centres, concerts, museums, stadiums, bars having been found to use the surveillance.

Currenlty, there is no law for facial recognition in the UK. So far, 3,000+ people have been wrongly identified by police facial recognition.

Facial recognition has already been banned in San Francisco + 13 other cities.

Research shows that facial recognition discriminates against women and people of colour.

Find out more about Big Brother Watch’s campaign to stop facial recognition