Fears over cameras that record your face
A cRIMINOLOGIST says it is ‘alarming’ that cameras with facial recognition technology have been introduced at a busy 67-acre city centre site.
The cameras are being used to monitor the tens of thousands of people who work, shop and go out in king’s cross, north London.
The city’s canary Wharf financial district is also seeking to trial them, it was confirmed yesterday.
But campaigners say use of the cameras is ‘authoritarian’ as they store pictures of people’s faces without their consent.
As the law stands, companies using them must prove the surveillance is ‘strictly necessary and proportionate’. They work by picking out faces in crowds and comparing them against large databases, such as lists of known troublemakers or criminals, and checking for a match in seconds.
Last month, Information commissioner Elizabeth Denham said that policing facial recognition software was a ‘high priority’ for her office.
But Professor Paul Wiles, Uk biometrics commissioner and criminologist, has gone further to raise the alarm, telling the BBc: ‘There’s no point in having facial-matching tech unless you are matching it against some kind of database – now what is that database? It’s alarming whether they have constructed their own database or got it from somewhere else. There is a police database which I very much hope they don’t have access to.’
The king’s cross area is home to technology giant Google and central Saint Martins arts college. Both said that they were unaware either staff or students were being watched in this way.
A spokesman for the king’s cross site, which is owned by developer Argent, refused to reveal the basis in law for the cameras’ use or how long it would store images of people’s faces.
He said: ‘These cameras use a number of detection and tracking methods, including facial recognition, but also have sophisticated systems in place to protect the privacy of the public.’
‘Have they got database from somewhere else?’