The UK Government’s Stealth Support For Facial Recognition Tech in Stores

If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A damning exposé leaked to The Observer has revealed the clandestine ambitions of the UK Home Office: to pressure the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) into broadening the application of facial recognition technology throughout main-street businesses. This sinister proposal was born in a covert meeting among policing minister Chris Philp, high-ranking Home Office officials, and Facewatch – a private firm notorious for its facial recognition cameras, which have incited public outrage following their deployment in shops. The leaked minutes from this secret assembly unveil the chilling fact that the Home Office is choosing to dismiss serious concerns over the technology’s infringement on civil liberties and its inherent bias. Instead, they appear hell-bent on peddling the purported benefits of facial recognition in tackling “retail crime,” The Guardian reported. Big Brother Watch’s Mark Johnson, rightfully disturbed by this insidious power play, echoed the sentiments of freedom-loving individuals everywhere, expressing his grave concerns about this Orwellian invasion of privacy and the detrimental implications for civil liberties: “Minutes of the closed-door meeting between Chris Philp and surveillance tech firm Facewatch make for uncomfortable reading. The Home Office must urgently answer questions about this meeting, which appears to have led officials to lean on the ICO in order to favour a firm that sells highly invasive facial recognition technology. “Live facial recognition is an authoritarian mass surveillance tool that turns the public into walking ID cards. When used in retail…The UK Government’s Stealth Support For Facial Recognition Tech in Stores