While EU lawmakers are mulling a temporary ban on the use of facial recognition to safeguard individuals’ rights, as part of a risk-focused plan to regulate AI, London’s Met Police has today forged ahead with deploying the privacy hostile technology — flipping the switch on operational use of live facial recognition in the U.K. capital.

The deployment comes after a multi-year period of trials by the Met and police in South Wales.

The Met says its use of the controversial technology will be targeted to “specific locations… where intelligence suggests we are most likely to locate serious offenders.”

“Each deployment will have a bespoke ‘watch list’, made up of images of wanted individuals, predominantly those wanted for serious and violent offences,” it adds.

It also claims cameras will be “clearly signposted,” adding that officers will be “deployed to the operation will hand out leaflets about the activity.”

“At a deployment, cameras will be focused on a small, targeted area to scan passers-by,” it writes. “The technology, which is a standalone system, is not linked to any other imaging system, such as CCTV, body worn video or ANPR.”

The biometric system is being provided to the Met by Japanese IT and electronics giant, NEC.

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Originally posted by:

Natasha Lomas

January 24th, 2020

www.techcrunch.com

Image Credits: Steffi Loos/Getty Images

