Big Brother Watch responds to £230 million for facial recognition announced in budget

In response to the announcement in the Budget that £230m will go to police to “deliver pilot schemes of police technology like facial recognition.”  Madeleine Stone, Senior Advocacy Officer at Big Big Brother Watch said:

“Wasting millions of pounds on intrusive and inefficient facial recognition will not fix the UK’s broken criminal justice system. This mass surveillance tool turns innocent members of the public into walking barcodes, giving police forces the potential to monitor and track us like never before.

“With police officers not responding to emergency calls and failing to undertake routine investigations, facial recognition is a shiny distraction that puts the public’s right to privacy and anonymity at huge risk.

“While our allies in the EU is using its AI Act to curb police use of biometric surveillance, the Government is diverging from our democratic allies and following in the footsteps of authoritarian states like China and Russia.”

ENDS.

Notes:

Spokespeople are available for interviews. Contact Big Brother Watch’s 24h media line on 07730439257 or email [email protected]

The post Big Brother Watch responds to £230 million for facial recognition announced in budget appeared first on Big Brother Watch.