It is said that police are breaking the human rights law by using the controversial facial recognition software, as heard by a landmark court case. Ed Bridges has bought the very first challenge which was legal on this technology which was trialed by forces in different parts of the United Kingdom.
He says that he has been scanned by the cameras which were used by police at a peaceful anti-arms protest in the year 2018 and also while he was doing his Christmas shopping some months before. He also stated that the police started making use of facial recognition technology without any consultation or warning. He further added that it was quite difficult to see how the police could use this intrusive surveillance tool. Also, he hoped that the court would agree with the people that making use of such facial recognition tool must come to an end, and the social rights of all the people must be guarded.
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Also, the lawyers have accused the force of violating the privacy and the rights of data protection by giving an image which was taken of him in public. The administrative court in Cardiff was told that the automatic facial recognition (AFR) gave police the access in such a way that they could monitor the activity of people in public in a way that wasn’t possible before – without having to get any consent.
It was further said that ARF is representing such a big step and the main reason for it is that you can actually capture the biometric data of thousands of people instantaneously. Also, it has profound the consequences for privacy and the rights of data protection. Apart from this, the legal framework which applies to the use of AFR by the police currently doesn’t give any guarantee that the rights of people are sufficiently protected.
As said by the lawyer, article eight of the Human Rights Act – respect for privacy as well as the Data Protection Act was violated. The facial recognition will scan the faces of people from the live footage of the camera and then the results will be compared with a watch list from the database of the police. This can make use of different parameters which will include suspects, a person of interests and people who are missing.
Mr. Bridges said that the police have to make us feel safe but with the help of technology they are being intrusive and intimidating. They didn’t even provide any guidance in order to deploy it and no independent oversight which will make sure that the use of it is done in an appropriate manner and the rights of people are being protected.
Mr. Bridges is supported by the Liberty Human Rights Charity which said that facial recognition makes a mockery of our right to privacy. Apart from this, studies have also shown that some facial recognition software which disproportionately misidentifies women and the ethnic minorities.
