Privacy groups report that UK police have dramatically increased facial recognition scanning of databases comprising passport images without informing the public or parliament. The passport database holds around 58 million images, with an additional 92 million sourced from immigration and related databases. In recent years, searches by police from the passport database surged from two in 2020 to 417 in 2023. This raises concerns about privacy, democracy, and the potential for misidentification, prompting calls for a ban on these practices from advocacy groups.
Big Brother Watch claims the UK government has allowed images from the passport and immigration databases to be used in facial recognition systems without public or parliamentary knowledge.
The passport database contains approximately 58 million headshots, along with an additional 92 million from other immigration sources, which raises significant concerns regarding privacy.
The lack of transparency surrounding the databases was described as 'Orwellian' by Big Brother Watch and Privacy International, leading them to call for a ban on the practice.
Big Brother Watch reported a dramatic increase in police searches of passport databases, from just two in 2020 to over 400 in 2023, indicating a troubling trend.
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