The post Scotland Police Expands Controversial Use of Facial Recognition: Concerns Over Misidentifications Grow appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

In a concerning development, Police Scotland has significantly increased its utilization of a contentious form of facial recognition technology over the past five years, prompting worries about potential wrongful identifications of suspects. The surge in the use of retrospective facial recognition has raised alarms, with experts and activists calling for a reassessment of its deployment and the need for stronger safeguards. Escalating use of facial recognition According to data obtained through Freedom of Information (FoI) requests, the use of retrospective facial recognition by Police Scotland has surged threefold in the last five years. This technology employs algorithms to identify individuals captured on camera at crime scenes by comparing their faces with millions of custody images stored on a UK-wide police database. Notably, Police Scotland’s use of the facial matching function jumped from just under 1300 searches in 2018 to nearly 4000 in 2022, positioning it as the fourth most prolific force in the UK for utilizing this technology. Ethical concerns and biases While Police Scotland views retrospective facial recognition as a valuable tool in identifying criminals, including those involved in child exploitation, concerns have been raised by campaigners and politicians. The technology has been known to produce “false positives,” leading to the wrongful identification of individuals. Additionally, studies have indicated biases in facial recognition algorithms, particularly against women and people of color. Calls for suspension and review Experts in the field, including those who have advised the Scottish Government on facial recognition, have called for a suspension of Police Scotland’s use of the technology until robust evidence can be provided to demonstrate its appropriateness, proportionality, and effectiveness. The fact that the police database includes images of individuals who were found innocent or later cleared at trial has fueled these concerns. UK-wide escalation of searches The escalation of searches involving facial…

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Filed under: News - @ November 5, 2023 10:26 am