Facial recognition: Who's watching you shop, and why?

If you're already incensed about the loss of your personal privacy due to government over-reach and/or facial recognition technology, this footage homing in on the issue will come as no surprise. If, however, you haven't been too bothered by the mushrooming presence of CCTV cameras gauging your every move, your diometric data, and now, your supposed emotions, even as you go about your shopping, the five-minute study by UK civil liberties organisation Big Brother Watch (BBW) may come as a nasty eye-opener. The campaign is to raise awareness of the matter, and launches as Parliament is due to debate police use of live facial recognition for the first time. As BBW puts it: "Governments across the democratic world are legislating to ban and significantly restrict the use of live facial recognition surveillance, by both law enforcement bodies and private companies – but successive governments here have let the UK fall behind our international partners". Too much information? Quite apart from the privacy issue, environmentalists will point to the costs of processing mega amounts of data.

Keywords: Big Brother Watch live facial recognition, intrusion of privacy, police use of live facial recognition, surveillance state, shopping surveillance cameras, civil liberties UK