MOSCOW, January 6 UK police secretly used owner database British passports to use facial recognition technology, the Telegraph newspaper reported following its own investigation.
«Police secretly carried out hundreds of facial recognition procedures using a database of 46 million British passport holders,» the newspaper writes.
The newspaper notes that it received the data from the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs under the Freedom of Information Law.
Police have been involved in similar operations since at least 2019, and used the data of British passport holders more than 300 times in the first nine months of 2023 alone, according to the Telegraph. In addition to them, law enforcement officers also used data from the immigration service containing information about migrants.
As the newspaper reports, police have increasingly turned to facial recognition technology in recent years, but usually rely on a national police database containing approximately 16 million photos of those who have ever been detained, including those who were never charged. charges.