High Court rules on lawfulness of police use of Automated Facial Recognition technology (R (on the application of Bridges) v Chief Constable of South Wales Police (Information Commissioner and another intervening))

Article summary

Information law analysis: The High Court has delivered what is reportedly the first verdict by any court in the world on the use of Automated Facial Recognition (AFR) technology (also called Live Facial Recognition (LFR)). The case arose out of a trial of AFR in a pilot called ‘AFR Locate’ by the South Wales Police (SWP). AFR uses the digital video from surveillance cameras to isolate pictures of individual faces, extract biometric data about the face and identify likely matches against a database. The claimant, a civil liberties campaigner, sought judicial review of the use of AFR on the basis of human rights, data protection and equalities laws. However, the court concluded that the current legal regime is adequate to ensure the appropriate and non-arbitary use of the AFR and its use had complied with the applicable laws.