This archive report was first published on 18 November 2019.
Published on November 18, 2019, a discreet experiment in London's Kings Cross area has sparked controversy over the use of facial recognition technology.
Between 2016 and 2018, two surveillance cameras were installed to track passers-by, fuelling debate in Britain where its use lacks a legal framework.
The company behind the project claimed it aimed to help the police prevent and detect crimes, but data watchdogs have expressed concern about the increasing use of facial recognition technology.
Ed Bridges, a 36-year-old Cardiff University employee, has sued Welsh police for targeting him with this technology while he was Christmas shopping in 2017 and at a protest in 2018.
"This is not something I had consented to," Bridges said. "People have a reasonable expectation of privacy and the state should be supporting the right... not undermining it."
However, a survey commissioned by the Information Commissioner's Office earlier this year found that facial recognition enjoys widespread public support, with over 80 percent of respondents backing its use by the police.
London is a potential hotspot for the deployment of facial recognition, with its 420,000 surveillance cameras, according to a 2017 study by the Brookings Institution think-tank.
Human rights specialists are pressing for a legal framework, including an oversight agency, to regulate the use of facial recognition technology.
