https://tech.newstatesman.com/security/high-court-ruling-facial-recognition-liberty

A High Court ruling that the South Wales Police’s use of facial recognition technology is lawful is being challenged today in the Court of Appeal by human rights group Liberty. The organisation is arguing that the technology breaches human rights laws and is discriminatory.

The organisation is acting on behalf of Cardiff resident Ed Bridges, whose face was scanned in early trials of the surveillance technology. Liberty is arguing that the police failed to meet its obligations under the Equality Act 2010 because it didn’t take into account that the technology is more likely to misidentify women and people of colour; that the tech conflicts with a person’s right to a private life (as dictated by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights); that the scale of infringement of the technology – which has scanned more than 500,000 faces to date – is not proportionate to the task at hand; and that the South Wales Police doesn’t have an adequate policy document in place governing its use of facial recognition technology.