UK Police To Be Able To Run Face Recognition Searches on 50 Million Driving Licence Holders (theguardian.com) 24
The police will be able to run facial recognition searches on a database containing images of Britain's 50 million driving licence holders under a law change being quietly introduced by the government. From a report: Should the police wish to put a name to an image collected on CCTV, or shared on social media, the legislation would provide them with the powers to search driving licence records for a match. The move, contained in a single clause in a new criminal justice bill, could put every driver in the country in a permanent police lineup, according to privacy campaigners.
Facial recognition searches match the biometric measurements of an identified photograph, such as that contained on driving licences, to those of an image picked up elsewhere. The intention to allow the police or the National Crime Agency (NCA) to exploit the UK's driving licence records is not explicitly referenced in the bill or in its explanatory notes, raising criticism from leading academics that the government is "sneaking it under the radar." Once the criminal justice bill is enacted, the home secretary, James Cleverly, must establish "driver information regulations" to enable the searches, but he will need only to consult police bodies, according to the bill.
Facial recognition searches match the biometric measurements of an identified photograph, such as that contained on driving licences, to those of an image picked up elsewhere. The intention to allow the police or the National Crime Agency (NCA) to exploit the UK's driving licence records is not explicitly referenced in the bill or in its explanatory notes, raising criticism from leading academics that the government is "sneaking it under the radar." Once the criminal justice bill is enacted, the home secretary, James Cleverly, must establish "driver information regulations" to enable the searches, but he will need only to consult police bodies, according to the bill.
Thanks Brexit (Score:5, Insightful)
That kind of shit would never fly in the EU.
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I don't think it's a country thing. It's a corporate and fascist movement versus democracy thing, and it's happening in all western countries, to varying degrees. Consider Italy's Green Pass, justified on the grounds of health, but respected experts in public health would not agree.
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I had a quick look, and so if I'm wrong below, please correct me and if you have a reference please tell, however:
When I look at Pruem II it seems that what it does is allow the interchange of information about ongoing police investigations. Specifically, that means that the data is gathered for a specific reason, is owned by a specific police group and then has a finite legal lifetime. The UK legislation is taking data that has nothing to do with a criminal investigation, data which is basically maintained
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https://www.statewatch.org/med... [statewatch.org]
That's bloody terrifying. Thanks for sharing.
They're British (Score:2)
Just wear novelty teeth for your next DL photo.
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That's literally racist.
Well, I'm not racist. Some of my best friends are vampires.
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That's literally racist.
Well, I'm not racist. Some of my best friends are vampires.
As somebody that writes a lot of vampire fiction, you gave me a legit LOL moment. Bravo!
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British [superstarsbio.com] is a race?
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Just wear novelty teeth for your next DL photo.
https://dentistry.co.uk/2016/0... [dentistry.co.uk]
https://www.orchardscottsdenta... [orchardscottsdental.com]
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Whoops, I forgot to show that I was quoting the Grandparent quote
Trust (Score:2)
Yeah, but you can trust them. The UK is a police state that just about hides it enough so we subjects of His Majesty King Charles III don't think it is.
No worries (Score:2)
Most UK CCTV footage is so low resolution it is useless. People’s faces look like blurry blobs. Best they can do with CCTV there is say “a pixelated blob done it”. When they say facial recognition they can only mean it will identify what part of the blob of pixels is the face and which is the ass (and no I don't mean arse, you Brits.. I mean it will determine if it is a donkey or a human face.)
Rebel (Score:3)
The citizens should rebel by never going outside or going anywhere without wearing a Niqab regardless of wheter you are male or female, Christian, Jew, Muslim, or Athiest.
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This is Great Briton, where they have semi-professional leagues that burn traffic cameras for sport (apparently, the fastest way is to fill a tire up with gasoline, er, petrol, drop it over the camera, and light it up). I doubt they'll be any calmer on this.
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where they have semi-professional leagues that burn traffic cameras for sport
Are they still doing that? The website that documented such events mostly around the east side of Birmingham was taken down years ago.
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I think most people in the UK know that the country is in decline. They either support this stuff because they mistakenly think it won't affect them, or they are too focused on survival to do much about it.
We have an election coming up, but the choice is between competent evil and incompetent evil.
Function creep in 3... 2... 1... (Score:2)
> “When you get a crime scene image from CCTV or something like that, do you agree it would be useful to be able to do a facial recognition search across DVLA records as well as the other records that can currently be accessed?”
I wonder how long it would take for "a crime scene image from" to be quietly dropped should this pass. I'll guess about .0005 New York minutes.
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this is a step in the right direction.
Depends on two factors:
1) How will it be misused (and it will be), and how will the misuse be punished?
2) Is the technology accurate enough that there will be more true positives than false negatives? Facial recognition doesn't have a good track record on that. as Rite Aid recently found out [seattletimes.com].
Without firm, data backed answers to both of those questions, it's impossible to judge whether this will do more good than harm.
(And since it's politicians behind it, it's impossible to know what they actual intent is,
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It's worrying if the courts simply assume the machine match is correct and it's taken as evidence. Like how speed camera readings are assumed correct. What happens if the machine says 95% likely it is you in the frame, and you have no alibi?
Re: Arbitrary police restrictions are dumb (Score:2)
Seen lots of 'illegals' with a U.K. driving license in the U.K. lately? They're a rare breed.