Facial Recognition Surveillance
The Metropolitan Police are proposing a major expansion of live facial-recognition surveillance across London, claiming success after nearly a thousand arrests linked to the technology. Their public consultation, proudly cited by the force, apparently found that 85 % of respondents support the use of facial recognition to catch serious criminals. On the surface, it sounds persuasive - a high-tech answer to crime. But the idea that mass scanning of faces in public should become routine ought to alarm anyone who values freedom over convenience. Let's not forget that it is little coincidence that facial recognition is being rolled out in tandem with digital ID - the two systems will surely be linked, meaning walking down the high street to get a pint of milk becomes the equivalent of walking through passport control. In a free society, the presumption of innocence is not negotiable. Yet facial-recognition systems function by presuming the opposite: that everyone passing a camera des...