Facial recognition software fails ID tests

FACIAL recognition technology does not work, Scotland Yard figures have shown.

For the Metropolitan Police, 98 per cent of “matches” were wrong, and for South Wales Police the figure was 91 per cent.

The figures for the software – used at major events like the Notting Hill Carnival, sporting fixtures and music concerts to detect people on a watch list, including wanted criminals – were revealed in response to freedom of information requests by Big Brother Watch, the civil liberties organisation.

Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, said: “It is deeply disturbing and undemocratic that police are using a technology that is almost entirely inaccurate, that they have no legal power for, and that poses a major risk to our freedoms. It must be dropped.”

Figures released by the Metropolitan Police showed there had been 102 false positives – cases where someone was incorrectly matched to a photo – and only two that were correct. Neither of those was arrested.

Big Brother Watch is calling for UK authorities to stop using automated facial recognition software with surveillance cameras, a move backed by David Lammy MP and campaign groups including the Football Supporters Federation, Index on Censorship, Liberty and the Race Equality Foundation.