Three arrested as police trial face-id checks in London
POLICE officers tried out facial recognition software on the streets of central London for the first time yesterday.
The Metropolitan Police deployed the technology in Soho, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, looking for suspects wanted by the force or the courts.
The operation was highly visible, with uniformed officers present alongside detectives and posters informing passers-by what was happening.
The Met said anyone who declined to be scanned was not automatically “viewed as suspicious”.
Matches were not considered to be grounds to detain people and officers were instructed to make further checks before taking any action.
Three arrests were made during the operation, with one suspect identified by the technology as being wanted for a violent offence.
A civil liberties group, Big Brother Watch, has criticised the use of the software as “authoritarian, dangerous and lawless”, and said it had previously misidentified innocent people.
♦a facial recognition loophole has been discovered after an investigation revealed that 3D printed heads could unlock smartphones, with Android phones the most vulnerable.
Joseph Carson, chief security scientist at software company Thycotic, warned facial recognition software should never be used as a primary form of security on a phone.