UK Police To Use Driving License Database For Facial Recognition

The British government is discreetly advancing new legislation that would give police power to utilize facial recognition technology on the UK’s national database of 50 million driving license images, despite the use of this technology not being on the cards when images were collected.

If this change is enacted, anonymity on CCTV footage could become obsolete for the nation’s drivers who could potentially be designated a match for any image collected from CCTV footage or even social media platforms.

The Guardian reports the legislation for this significant move is a clause embedded in the impending criminal justice bill, a fact which has alarmed privacy defenders by the prospect of a continuous police lineup involving all of the country’s drivers.