UK and Australia law enforcement facial recognition projects under public microscope

The UK police in Northern Ireland are debating facial recognition and biometric data retention rules, with some stakeholders calling for more transparency, while their colleagues in England are preparing to launch the tech for the British Grand Prix. Meanwhile, people in Australia are finding out from a new report that the country’s stadiums are full of watching cameras connected to facial recognition systems.

Northern Ireland report says public should be consulted on rules

Police in Northern Ireland have published a report looking at the impact of emerging data-driven technologies in policing on privacy rights, including biometric data retention and the use of live facial recognition – which is not used in the region.

The report examined the powers of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to investigate crime concluding that facial recognition systems, biometric data retention, CCTV and automated number plate recognition (ANPR) are often adopted in Northern Ireland without public consultation.

“Transparency in policing is difficult when techniques of targeted surveillance are concerned,” writes Policing Board’s Human Rights Adviser John Wadham in the report. “What techniques are actually used by PSNI in secret is often exaggerated and distorted. However, it is precisely these factors which continue to undermine confidence in PSNI, especially in some communities.”

Wadham advised that an Investigatory Powers Commissioner should be appointed to look at the Northern Ireland police’s use of surveillance powers. The report also recommends that Northern Ireland police create a special report on what facial recognition systems it uses and which ones it plans to employ in the future.

Wadham also hailed the data ethics framework used by police in Scotland, which also appointed its first Biometrics Commissioner in 2021, as a positive example.

At the moment, police in Northern Ireland do not use live facial recognition, i.e. identifying people by continually processing CCTV images, nor does it have plans but “we can never say never,” PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Chris Todd told The Detail.

Facial recognition and biometric data retention has been an ongoing issue in the UK, but in Northern Ireland, data retention has attracted special attention as police there have amassed DNA and biometrics of people related to the conflicts in the region which lasted until 1998.

The PSNI agreed in 2019 to publish a formal public policy on biometric data retention after a case brought by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC). PSNI’s Todd said that the police have a process that allows people to request biometric data deletion.

The region, however, is yet to receive its first laws around biometric data. In 2020, Northern Ireland police said it will start deleting DNA records after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that an indefinitely-stored database of biometric data such as photos and fingerprints of drunk drivers represents a human rights violation.

Australian consumer rights group warns of facial recognition in stadiums

Sensitive biometric data is being collected by major sporting and concert venues across Australia, with consumers largely left in the dark, consumer advocacy group Choice has warned.

The group said that the technology is often deployed without consumers’ knowledge or consent with owners and operators of stadiums lacking transparency. Its report looks at 10 major venues in the country, concluding that four of them have deployed facial recognition, with two more unclear about its use.

“I think one of the main problems from a consumer’s perspective is that they don’t know when facial recognition is being used and then when they are told that it is being used, it’s very deep in some conditions of entry or privacy policy. They often don’t find out about it until after they’ve already bought a ticket,” Choice’s consumer data advocate Kate Bower says in the report.

The group maintains that the widespread use of the technology highlights the need for law reform. In September last year, researchers from the University of Technology Sydney published a model of how a law regulating facial recognition might look like.

Perhaps the country’s most controversial deployment of face biometrics is the Australian Federal Police trial of Clearview AI’s facial recognition software which was revealed in 2020. In June this year, Australian regulators found that the photo-scraper is bound by that country’s Privacy Act meaning that the company is liable for harvesting sensitive personal information without consent.

Formula 1 British Grand Prix gets facial recognition

More than 450,000 people who are expected to visit this year’s 2023 British Grand Prix will be watched by cameras equipped with live facial recognition, police have announced. The event will be held this weekend in Northamptonshire.

This is the first time that live facial recognition has been deployed outside of the South Wales and Metropolitan Police areas, which are the only forces in the UK trialing the tech, the force said in the announcement. The technology will match face biometrics against those held on a watchlist. The system, which also includes Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) units, is expected to provide an additional layer of security during the Formula 1 Aramco British Grand Prix.

The UK police force has been defending its use of facial recognition against complaints from civil rights groups and other critics who slammed police plans to push the biometric identification technology nationally. In May, the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL) presented its conclusions on the accuracy of the NEC system used by the Met Police as part of a Parliament inquiry on the Governance of artificial intelligence.

The technology has been deployed during other public events this year such as the coronation of King Charles and Beyonce’s concert.

Article Topics

ANPR  |  Australia  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  Ireland  |  police  |  UK