(LD):...Facial recognition
technology was used by police in Cardiff to monitor an entirely
peaceful protest. The watch-list fed into the system contained
mostly individuals not wanted for any criminal activity. It was
just monitoring law-abiding citizens exercising their right to
peaceful protest. The Appeal Court found that South
Wales Police had unlawfully deployed the technology, but
that has not stopped it being used at peaceful protests...
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office () (Con):...The noble
Lord, , suggested that in the
south Wales case, the use of live facial recognition was deemed
unlawful. That is not the case. The court found
that South Wales
Police did not fully comply with privacy, data
protection and equality laws during two of their pilots, but made
it clear what needed to be done to ensure compliance with the
legal framework. Since then, the police have addressed those
court findings. The College of Policing has issued national
guidance on live facial recognition, in particular setting out
the circumstances in which the police can use it and the
categories of people they can look for. The National Physical
Laboratory has independently tested the algorithms used
by South Wales
Police and the Metropolitan Police and found that they
were very accurate, and there were no statistically significant
differences in performance based on gender or ethnicity—a point
that often gets made and needs clarifying...
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