- The Home Office has announced a nationwide expansion of live facial recognition technology, deploying 10 new vans equipped with cameras to target "high-harm" offenders.
- Critics, including Labour peer Baroness Chakrabarti and campaign group Big Brother Watch, have condemned the rollout, saying it signifies a move towards a "total surveillance society".
- They also raised concerns about privacy, freedom of assembly, and the risk of false matches.
- Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson defended the technology, highlighting its effectiveness by citing 580 arrests made by the Metropolitan Police in the last year for serious crimes such as rape and domestic abuse.
- The Home Office said the technology's algorithm has been independently tested and will be operated ethically with robust oversight, with individual forces determining deployment within established guidelines.
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