High Court to grill London cops over live facial recognition creep

The High Court will hear from privacy campaigners this week who want to reshape the way the Metropolitan Police is allowed to use live facial recognition (LFR) tech.

Civil liberties group Big Brother Watch is supporting the case brought by claimant and anti-knife crime campaigner Shaun Thompson, who said that after being misidentified by LFR cameras in Croydon, police demanded he submit his fingerprints.

"I was misidentified by a live facial recognition system while coming home from a community patrol in Croydon," said Thompson. "Police officers told me I was a wanted man and demanded my fingerprints even though I'd done nothing wrong. What happened to me was shocking and unfair."

The High Court hearing will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the legal challenge [PDF] focusing on alleged violations of privacy rights, which are protected by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Thompson ...