THE UK government wants to be able to recognise individuals in live videos quickly, and it is spending big to do so. A contract put out to tender by the Home Office last week offers 拢4.6 million for an upgrade to its automatic face recognition (AFR) software.
Police forces in England and Wales have databases containing about 16 million images of faces, obtained from mugshots and during questioning, that could be used to identify people. For example, in May, a man whose image is in a police database was arrested in south Wales after AFR spotted him in footage from a van.
Beyond that, AFR hasn鈥檛 had much success. Police trialled it last year at Notting Hill Carnival, an event that draws 2 million visitors. Of the more than 400 arrests during the event, AFR wasn鈥檛 used in one. This failure is behind calls not to use it at this year鈥檚 festival.
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It is also opposed by civil liberties groups. Regulations on what governments can do with pictures are less strict than those for DNA and fingerprints. 鈥淲idespread use of facial recognition technology in public will have an impact on the freedom we take for granted [in] our daily lives,鈥� says Harmit Kambo at Privacy International. 鈥淚t turns us into walking ID cards.鈥�
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淲e see you鈥�
