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U.K. Privacy Chief Sounds Alarm Over Live Facial Recognition

  • Calls for high standards deploying the technology in public
  • U.K. data commissioner concerned about ‘reckless’ use
A security camera sits on a pole in central London, U.K.

A security camera sits on a pole in central London, U.K.

Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg

Britain’s privacy chief issued a warning over the risks from facial recognition technology, saying people should be free to go shopping or walk around a town “without having our biometric data collected and analyzed with every step we take.”

Elizabeth Denham, the U.K. Information Commissioner, said in a blog post that she’s deeply concerned about the potential for live facial recognition technology, or LFR, to be used “inappropriately, excessively or even recklessly.” She urged organizations and private companies to put people’s privacy “at the heart of any decisions to deploy” the technology in public spaces.