Perspective: PrivacyShoppers Targeted by Face‑Recognition Cameras in “Epidemic” of Surveillance

Published 19 August 2019

There is an “epidemic” of facial recognition surveillance technology at privately owned sites in Britain, campaigners say. Big Brother Watch, a civil liberties group, found shopping centers, museums, conference centers and casinos had all used the software that compares faces captured by CCTV to those of people on watch lists, such as suspected terrorists or shoplifters. Privacy campaigners have criticized trials of the technology by police in London and Wales, questioning their legal basis.

There is an “epidemic” of facial recognition surveillance technology at privately owned sites in Britain, campaigners say.

Mark Bridge writes in The Times that Big Brother Watch, a civil liberties group, found shopping centers, museums, conference centers and casinos had all used the software that compares faces captured by CCTV to those of people on watch lists, such as suspected terrorists or shoplifters.

Privacy campaigners have criticized trials of the technology by police in London and Wales, questioning their legal basis. The Information Commissioner’s Office this week launched an investigation into the use of facial recognition at King’s Cross in central London by the developer Argent.

The report from Big Brother Watch includes a “secret” trial of the technology at Meadowhall in Sheffield, one of the UK’s largest shopping centers, last year. A spokeswoman for British Land, the center’s owner, said it was spelt out in the company’s online privacy notice that facial recognition may be used.

She said the technology had not been used at any other sites in the company’s £16.8 billion portfolio. Another landowner, Intu, which was criticized over a trial of the technology at the Trafford Centre in Greater Manchester, has a similar clause in its online terms but told The Times that it had not used the technology in any other cases.