Section:GDN 1N PaGe:30 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone:S Sent at 5/9/2019 20:28 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Friday 6 September 2019
(^30) National
Survey reveals disquiet
over rising use of facial
recognition technology
PA Media
More than half of people in Britain
want the government to curb police
use of facial recognition technology,
a survey suggests.
The research found 55% of the 4,109
adults who responded want restric-
tions on police use, while almost a
third (29%) feel uncomfortable with
forces using the technology at all.
However, 49% supported the use of
the technology in day-to-day polic-
ing if proper safeguards are in place.
Conducted by the Ada Lovelace
Institute with YouGov, the survey also
revealed 46% of those asked want the
right to opt out of the use of facial rec-
ognition technology. People are even
more uneasy with its use by private
companies, with 77% saying they are
uncomfortable with its use in shops
to track customers and 76% reporting
they are uncomfortable with it being
used by HR departments.
The survey also found about two-
thirds of people (67%) are opposed to
the use of facial recognition technol-
ogy in schools and 61% do not want it
used on public transport.
The Ada Lovelace Institute’s direc-
tor, Carly Kind , said: “These fi ndings
show that companies and the gov-
ernment have a responsibility to act
now. The UK is not ready for facial rec-
ognition technology. As a fi rst step,
a voluntary moratorium by all those
selling and using facial recognition
technology would enable a more
informed conversation about limita-
tions and appropriate safeguards.”
The report, Beyond Face Value:
Public Attitudes to Facial Recognition
Technology , was published after an
activist this week lost the world’s fi rst
legal challenge over its use by police.
Ed Bridges, 36, from Cardiff , brought
the challenge at the high court after
claiming his face was scanned while he
was Christmas shopping in 2017 and at
a peaceful anti-arms protest in 2018.
His lawyers argued the use of auto-
matic facial recognition (AFR) by
South Wales police caused him dis-
tress and violated his privacy and
data protection rights by processing
an image taken of him in public. His
case was dismissed on Wednesday by
two judges, who said the use of the
technology was not unlawful.
Facial recognition technology maps
faces in a crowd by measuring the dis-
tance between features then compares
results with a “watch list” of images -
which can include suspects, missing
people and persons of interest.
South Wales police piloted its tech-
nology during the week of the 2017
Champions League fi nal in Cardiff.
Facial recognition has also been
used on a number of privately owned
British sites, including in shopping
centres, museums and conference
centres, according to a recent investi-
gation by the civil liberties group Big
Brother Watch.
Getting a head This mask by Michael Howells ,
commissioned by John Galliano for a 2007
Dior fashion show, is in Christie’s September
interiors sale, which takes place next week.
PHOTOGRAPH:
MAL COLM PARK/
ALAMY
55%
The proportion of adults surveyed
who wanted restrictions on police
use of facial recognition systems
77%
The proportion who said that they
were uneasy about shops us ing the
technology to track customers
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