The Information Commissioner's Office has announced that it
has launched an investigation into the use of live
facial recognition technology in King's Cross, London by the
Police. This follows investigations the Information
Commissioner's Office has been carrying out into use of the
same technology by South Wales Police force.
The recording of citizens in public spaces in the UK is nothing
new. Neither is the controversy surrounding this practice, from
Orwell's predictions about Big Brother to the outcry that Google Glass caused not long after its
launch. Maintaining an adequate balance between individual privacy
and public safety has always been difficult.
The most recent controversy in this area is the creeping use of
live facial recognition technology both by public bodies and
private actors. Live facial recognition technology is different
from traditional CCTV because it does not simply record people but
compares their biometric data to that contained in
