Page 22 Daily Mail, Saturday, August 17, 2019
‘Disturbing’ rise in
facial recognition
cameras across UK
AN ‘epidemic’ of facial rec- By Tom Witherow
ognition cameras is creep-
ing across the UK, cam-
paigners warned yesterday.
Privately-owned spaces,
such as museums, shopping
centres and casinos are using
technology to capture the
public’s faces on camera.
The cameras have raised major
privacy questions, with informa-
tion commissioner Elizabeth
Denham saying she is ‘deeply
concerned’. This week, she
launched an investigation into
their use at the 67-acre King’s
Cross development, around the
train station in north London.
But the cameras are being
secretly deployed by private
companies in public spacesacross the country, an investiga-
tion by civil liberties group Big
Brother Watch found.
Liverpool’s World Museum
scanned visitors with facial rec-
ognition surveillance during the
Terracotta Warriors exhibition of
Chinese soldiers in 2018.
Big Brother Watch described it
as ‘dark irony’, noting that ‘this
authoritarian surveillance tool is
rarely seen outside of China’.Privacy: Recognition software in useThere were also concerns that many
of those scanned will have been chil-
dren, who flocked to the exhibit.
Sheffield’s Meadowhall, one of the
biggest shopping centres in the
North of England, also used the cam-
eras in secret police trials that took
place last year – potentially scanning
two million people.
The shopping centre is owned by
British Land, which owns other large
spaces within London. A company
spokesman said it does ‘not operate
facial recognition at any of our
assets’, and that the data from
Meadowhall was deleted ‘immedi-
ately after the trial’.
Last year, Manchester’s Trafford
Centre was pressured to stop using
live facial recognition surveillance
following an intervention by the Sur-
veillance Camera Commissioner. The
shopping centre scanned an esti-
mated 15million people.
The software identifies faces in a
crowd and checks them against huge
databases of troublemakers or crimi-
nals without their consent.
It has been reported that develop-ers, including financial district
Canary Wharf, are considering
installing the cameras.
Some casinos and betting shops
refer to their use of facial recognition
technology in their policies, includ-
ing Ladbrokes, Coral and Hippo-
drome Casino London.
And the use of facial recognition
software by South Wales Police is
being challenged in the courts by an
office worker in Cardiff.
Director of Big Brother Watch,
Silkie Carlo, said: ‘There is an epi-
demic of facial recognition in the
UK. The collusion between police
and private companies in building
these surveillance nets around pop-
ular spaces is deeply disturbing.’
She added: ‘The widespread use
we’ve found indicates we’re facing a
privacy emergency.’
The World Museum said it used
facial recognition cameras during
the Terracotta Warriors exhibition
on advice from ‘Merseyside Police
and local counter-terrorism advisers’
and that their presence was made
clear throughout the venue.Surveillance: One
of the cameras
STH