The number of police mass facial recognition searches in passport and immigration databases is skyrocketing. Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that the number of searches of the passport database surged from 2 in 2020 to 417 in 2023, and there was an almost sevenfold increase in searches of the immigration database from 16 in 2023 to 102 in 2024.
By using these databases as giant facial recognition watchlists, we are all at risk not only of profound invasions of privacy but misidentifications and injustice. It is the equivalent of the police secretly putting us all in a lineup of criminal suspects for identification without our knowledge.
In the video below, Big Brother Watch briefly explains what the UK government is surreptitiously doing and why it affects everyone with a passport and, possibly in the future, driving licences.
As one member of the public said, “We’re not far off from people being dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night because the computer has said they’ve done something, which they haven’t.”
Together with Privacy International, Big Brother Watch are calling for a suspension of facial recognition searches of the passport and immigration databases and has made preparations to pursue legal action against the Home Office and Metropolitan Police. You can learn more about their campaign to stop mass facial recognition surveillance and the associated legal action HERE.....<<<Read More>>>...
