Your ID Photos Will Power UK Facial Recognition System

The UK government’s recent digital ID consultation contains a detail that should have triggered far more alarm than it did. Ministers are proposing a national identity system built around a biometric image while openly stating that police facial recognition “may include access to biometric data held by government.”

That means this is not simply about a new app for proving your age or accessing services. It points towards a system in which photos already handed to the state for passports, visas, or other official purposes could help underpin both a national digital ID and a broader facial recognition framework. This development needs to be clearly understood.

The government is now signalling that existing biometric data will form its expanding surveillance architecture, and is no longer asking for trust in a future digital ID...<<<Read More>>>...