We wrote to the PM as a coalition of human rights, racial justice, migrants’ rights and civil liberties groups following his statement on the recent far right violence across the country and plans to introduce a “wider deployment of facial recognition technology.” We joined him in condemning the racist, violent and disorderly scenes across the country. However, to rush in the use of technology which has a seriously negative bearing on our rights and freedoms would not only fail to address the causes of this dangerous violence, but set a chilling precedent, undermining human rights and the UK’s legal obligation to protect and uphold human rights under international law.
Live facial recognition surveillance would not make us, or the communities we represent, feel any safer. On the contrary, it puts our rights and the democratic health of the country more at risk. We urge the PM to rethink his plans to expand the use of facial recognition surveillance in the UK, and would ask that he meets with us, to discuss the impacts of this AI mass surveillance.
Read the full letter here.
This letter was also covered by the Independent and Yahoo News.