Security News > 2020 > June > Laws on police facial recognition aren't tough enough, UK data watchdog barrister tells Court of Appeal
A top judge told a barrister for the UK Information Commissioner's Office today that his legal arguments against police facial-recognition technology face "a great difficulty" as he wondered whether they were even relevant to the case.
In plain English, Facenna was saying that South Wales Police's legal justification for deploying facial-recognition tech, as detailed yesterday, didn't comply with the Human Rights Act-guaranteed right to privacy - nor the Data Protection Act 2018 section, which states: "The processing of personal data for any of the law enforcement purposes is lawful only if and to the extent that it is based on law."
The court is hearing an appeal against a Divisional Court judgment which OK'd police use of the creepy surveillance technology.
Although police filled out a data protection impact assessment for its camera deployment, the ICO said it was not good enough, pointing out the Divisional Court found that it was a previous document that had been "Revised and retitled".
This afternoon the court began hearing from Jason Beer QC, barrister for South Wales Police.