A legal code of practice is needed before face recognition technology can be safely deployed by police forces in public places, says the UK鈥檚 data regulator.
The Information Commissioner鈥檚 Office (ICO) said it has serious concerns about the use of the technology as it relies on large amounts of personal information, in a blog post. Current laws, codes and practices 鈥渨ill not drive the ethical and legal approach that鈥檚 needed to truly manage the risk that this technology presents,鈥� said information commissioner Elizabeth Denham.
She called for police forces to be compelled to show justification that face recognition is 鈥渟trictly necessary, balanced and effective鈥� in each case it is deployed.
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Face recognition can map faces in a crowd by measuring the distance between facial features, then compare results with a 鈥渨atch list鈥� of images, which can include suspects, missing people and persons of interest.
South Wales Police and the Met Police have been trialling face recognition as a possible way to reduce crime, but the move has been divisive.
鈥淭he absence of a statutory code [鈥 will increase the likelihood of legal failures and undermine public confidence in its use,鈥� said Denham. 鈥淎s a result, the key recommendation arising from the ICO鈥檚 investigation is to call for government to introduce a statutory and binding code of practice.鈥�
The ICO called for more research to eliminate bias in the algorithms behind face recognition, particularly in relation to ethnicity. It has previously warned about potential technological bias, which can see more false positive matches from certain ethnic groups.
In September, a High Court ruled that the use of the technology by South Wales Police had not been unlawful after an activist argued that having his face scanned caused him 鈥渄istress鈥� and violated his privacy and data protection rights by processing an image taken of him in public.
Ed Bridges brought the challenge after claiming his face was scanned while doing Christmas shopping in 2017 and at a peaceful anti-arms protest in 2018. After the ruling, Bridges said he would appeal against the decision.
Denham said the judgment should not be seen as 鈥渂lanket authorisation鈥� for police forces to use face recognition systems in all circumstances because it was a case about a specific deployment.
