Should Facial Recognition Be Used Countrywide In Britain?

With plans to install cameras in UK cities, towns, and even villages, the government is looking to increase police use of face recognition technology to combat crime.

Ministers are looking into new laws about the use of the technology to pave the way for a major expansion, putting cameras in every police force area.

A ten-week consultation is being launched that will ask for the public’s thoughts on how the technology should be regulated and how to protect people’s privacy.

The Government also wants a regulator to control police use of facial recognition, biometrics and other tools and is gathering ideas on what powers it should have.

But critics have hit out at the ‘dystopian’ plan, noting concern at the ‘erosion of civil liberties’ after a string of controversial reforms by Labour.

Now, you can vote in the Daily Mail’s latest poll on whether you back a UK-wide rollout of the technology.

I can’t believe that so many people think this is a good idea.

Look at what’s happening – ID cards, facial recognition in every town, and denied trial by jury. This is dictatorial communism – You will be watched, and bank accounts will ultimately be frozen for petty offences – You should be frightened.

If it were just used to capture criminals, then I would not mind, but we all know that the system will be linked to the ID cards and every other service – health, tax, pensions, et cetera. We also know that the present government are gradually taking away more and more personal choices and ultimately wants full control of the population, so no, I would not want this additional surveillance rolled out. I find it rather ominous the way things are going.

Some might say that facial recognition is nothing to fret about if you haven’t done anything bad, then you’ve got nothing to worry about, but then there are the implications of them using your image that people might be worried about, but if you spin the coin you have to think about the number of people who have social media accounts that could be hacked for your information.

One by one, our freedoms are being stripped away by the state, and you can’t treat everyone as though they’re guilty until proven innocent. And for facial recognition to work, our government would have to ban all face coverings, or it won’t work.