Media

The government has opened a consultation on a legal framework for the use of facial recognition technologies amid controversy over a ‘surveillance society’. 

A peer-reviewed study published in Data & Policy by legal scholar Karen Yeung of the University of Birmingham, and Wenlong Li of Zhejiang University, warns that the testing of AI systems “in the wild” remains a largely ungoverned frontier – a “wild west” where police experiments with live facial recognition have repeatedly breached ethical and legal boundaries.

In-the-wild testing of police facial recognition systems has failed to generate clear evidence of the technology’s benefits, or to assess the full range of socio-technical impacts

This policy brief examines the legitimacy and effectiveness of the EU‘s ‘New Approach’ to technical standardisation, focusing on software-based applications and services that are informed by the analysis of data that affect individuals, groups, societal rights and interests (which we call ‘data informed applications and services’).

Contemporary life relies on regulation. The quality and safety of the water we drink, the food we eat, and the social media applications we use are all governed by multiple regulatory regimes.

The Metropolitan Police is taking an “irresponsible” approach to deploying live facial-recognition technology, say experts. We talk to civil society groups, lawyers and politicians about the controversial programme.