Does Big Brother Exist?Facial Recognition Technology in the United Kingdom

Facial recognition technology (FRT) has achieved remarkable progress in the last decade owing to the improvement of deep convolutional neural networks. The massive deployment of FRT in the United Kingdom has unsurprisingly tested the limits of democracy: where should the line be drawn between acceptable uses of this technology for collective or private purposes and the protection of individual entitlements that are compressed by the employment of FRT? The Bridges v South Wales Police case offered guidance on this issue. After lengthy litigation, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales ruled in favour of the applicant, a civil rights campaigner who claimed that the active FRT deployed by the police at public gatherings infringed his rights. Although the Bridges case offered crucial directives on the balancing between individual rights and the lawful use of FRT for law enforcement purposes under the current UK rules, several ethical and legal questions still remain unsolved. This chapter provides an overview of sociological and regulatory attitudes towards this technology in the United Kingdom; discusses the Bridges saga and its implications, and offers reflections on the future of FRT regulation in the United Kingdom.