| Date | Title | Description |
| 14.05.2025 | The Privacy Crisis: A Wake-Up Call for Britain | In the shadows of legislative halls, a storm brews. The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill is making its way through Parliament, and it carries a heavy burden. This bill, cloaked in the guise of combating welfare fraud, thr... |
| 13.05.2025 | Passing the Public Authorities Bill will hand away Brits’ privacy rights | Currently passing its way through parliament, the Public Authorities Bill should have more of us worried, writes Rebecca Vincent in today’s Notebook
This week the troubling Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill is making its w... |
| 07.05.2025 | Labour’s digital ID by the backdoor will be a honey pot for hackers | Labour’s attempt to usher in digital IDs via the backdoor is in urgent need of scrutiny, writes Jasleen Chaggar
You may feel a sense of deja vu at the debate over IDs. That campaign – No2ID – was fought and won in the early 2000s, but it ma... |
| 16.04.2025 | Whatsapp arrests and sieges on Quakers, Black Mirror is already here | Whatsapp chat arrests and sieges on Quaker meetings, it’s easy to feel like we’re already living in Black Mirror, writes Rebecca Vincent in today’s Notebook
Anyone would be forgiven for thinking some of the headlines in British newspapers i... |
| 04.04.2025 | Is real-life Severance here? Inside the offices microchipping employees | Is real life Severance already here? Anna Moloney talks to the companies using human microchips in the pursuit of productivity
As the TV-watching world reels from the conclusion of season two of Severance, it is perhaps comforting to view i... |
| 25.03.2025 | Facial recognition cameras in Croydon should alarm all Londoners | The instalment of permanent facial recognition cameras in Croydon should worry us all, writes Big Brother Watch interim director Rebecca Vincent
It’s been a busy month at Big Brother Watch. Amidst a number of worrying bills being rushed thr... |
| 06.12.2024 | Технология распознавания лиц позволила лондонской полиции произвести 500 арестов за год | Столичная полиция Лондона заявила, что с помощью технологии распознавания лиц в 2024 году было произведено более 500 арестов за различные правонарушения — от кражи в магазине до изнасилования.
Полиция использует технологию распознавания лиц... |
| 05.08.2024 | Незаконное использование технологии распознавания лиц обернулось для британской школы выговором | Английская школа получила официальное замечание от британского регулятора по защите данных после того, как использовала технологию распознавания лиц, не получив от учеников конкретного согласия на обработку их сканов, сообщили TechCrunch. Э... |
| 19.06.2024 | Amazon тестировала свои камеры с ИИ на ЖД-вокзалах Великобритании | Amazon протестировала свои камеры с искусственным интеллектом на железнодорожных вокзалах Великобритании. Системы отсканировали лица тысячи людей в течение двух лет. В дальнейшем полученные данные, вероятно, будут использованы в рекламных ц... |
| 19.06.2024 | Hidden AI Cameras Recorded Train Passengers’ Emotions at Glasgow Central | Train passengers in the UK had their emotions and demographic information recorded by AI cameras at major stations without their knowledge.
Network Rail conducted a covert trial, starting in 2022, using cameras at ticket barriers in station... |
| 13.05.2024 | The Notebook: Facial recognition CCTV is Orwellian. But it also doesn’t work | Where the City’s movers and shakers have their say. Today, Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, takes the pen to talk increasing CCTV surveillance, bank spying powers, and the power of dog adoption
As Londoners, we’re disturbingly u... |
| 02.05.2024 | Bank spying powers are Orwellian: the government must rethink | Slippery slopes are so named for a reason. One step might feel ok. A second, trouble-free. But suddenly momentum builds, and there’s no stopping you. The metaphor could not be more appropriate for the snooping powers that government is soon... |
| 25.03.2024 | The Notebook: How bank spying powers are being snuck into government bills | Where the City’s brightest thinkers get a few things off their chest. Today, Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, takes the Notebook pen to talk about how spying powers are being edged into law
Soon, your bank could be spying on you... |
| 03.03.2024 | AI-Powered Cameras Deployed at Concerts for Testing Ahead Olympics | Aldohn Domingo, Tech Times 03 March 2024, 10:03 pm
According to reports, the French police are testing AI-powered surveillance cameras this week to prepare for the cameras' intended deployment at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Six AI-equipped cam... |
| 06.10.2023 | British Lawmakers Join EU in Halting Live Facial Recognition | Aldohn Domingo, Tech Times 06 October 2023, 12:10 am
Live facial recognition is called to be stopped on Friday by 65 British Lawmakers, Reuters reports, joining the European Union's blanket ban on the tech that was implemented earlier this ... |
| 03.09.2023 | UK Government on Thin Ice as Watchdog Demands Transparency in AI Deployment for Welfare Claims | John Lopez, Tech Times 03 September 2023, 10:09 am
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) has undeniably become pervasive in various sectors. However, when AI is employed to make decisions that profoundly impact people's lives, the demand ... |
| 12.07.2023 | DWP Widening Use of Anti-fraud Tech Amid Concerns From Campaign Groups | In a recent National Audit Office (NAO) report concerning the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) financial accounts, it has come to light that the DWP is expanding its use of machine learning for identifying potential benefits fraud.
Si... |
| 22.03.2023 | Online Facial Recognition Service Caught Cruising Through Graveyards To Fill Its Database | Not literally, of course. Let’s get that out of the way. The company was not sending people out to dig up bodies to take photos to add to its facial recognition database. I mean, how would that even work. Not only that, but very few desicca... |
| 14.10.2022 | UK billboard advertisers abusing personal data, report | Advertisers are using data gathered from millions of phones in the UK to decide which adverts to display on billboards in various locations across the country.
That's according to a new analysis [pdf] by Big Brother Watch, a London-based ci... |
| 27.07.2022 | Southern Co-op's use of facial recognition system is Orwellian, privacy group | Privacy rights group Big Brother Watch has filed a legal complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) against Southern Co-operative's use of biometric scanning in its retail stores.
According to Big Brother Watch, the Co-opera... |
| 26.07.2022 | Southern Co-op Faces Legal Challenge Over “Orwellian” Facial Recognition Tech | A privacy rights group has filed a complaint with the ICO amid claims that Southern Co-op’s use of live facial recognition cameras is “unlawful”.
The legal complaint from Big Brother Watch argues that Southern Co-op’s use of biometric techn... |
| 23.05.2022 | Amazon snooping on delivery drivers while they work with 'creepy' AI cameras | TechAmazon snooping on delivery drivers while they work with 'creepy' AI cameras
Amazon is being criticised by privacy campaigners for its "excessive, intrusive and creepy" use of AI cameras in its delivery vans - it's meant to ke... |
| 11.03.2022 | Can the Online Safety Bill Differentiate Between Hate and Free Speech? | Controversial comments by leading politicians, including the Prime Minister, were removed by Facebook after civil liberty campaign group Big Brother Watch posted them from dummy accounts to test Facebook’s content policies.
Boris Johnson’s ... |
| 20.07.2021 | Invasive Council Algorithms “Discriminating Against Britain’s Poor” | Research published by Big Brother Watch shows that councils across Britain are conducting mass profiling of welfare and social care recipients to “predict” certain behaviours.
According to the privacy rights group, the profiling aims to pre... |
| 08.07.2021 | U.K.’s Online Safety Bill: Not That Safe, After All? | The U.K. government's long-awaited Online Safety Bill was published on May 12, and it follows a series of documents in the past few years that announced reforms in the area of online harms and the regulation of platforms. Its notable predec... |
| 25.05.2021 | Mass surveillance must have meaningful safeguards, says ECHR | The highest chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has delivered a blow to anti-surveillance campaigners in Europe by failing to find that bulk interception of digital comms is inherently incompatible with human rights law — w... |
| 25.05.2021 | GCHQ Mass Surveillance Programmes Violated Human Rights, Court Rules | A series of mass surveillance and bulk data collection programmes conducted by UK intelligence agency, GCHQ, have been ruled unlawful.
According to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, the mass interception programmes un... |
| 27.10.2020 | Privacy Groups Threaten Legal Action over Test and Trace Data Collection | The UK Government has been threatened with legal action unless it takes responsibility for Test and Trace data collection in the hospitality sector.
Two privacy rights groups, Big Brother Watch and the Open Rights Group, have threatened to ... |
| 12.08.2020 | Facial Recognition Trials by South Wales Police Ruled Unlawful | Trial deployments of facial recognition technology by South Wales Police have been ruled unlawful by the Court of Appeal.
The decision follows a legal challenge from civil rights group, Liberty, on behalf of Cardiff resident Ed Bridges. In ... |
| 07.02.2020 | Facial Recognition Has Its Eye on the U.K. | In the United Kingdom, there is an “eye in the sky” surveilling people on the street—and soon it may know their names. Human rights organizations such as Big Brother Watch and Liberty, as well as British parliamentarians, are challenging wh... |
| 31.01.2020 | London Police Move Forward With Full-Time Deployment Of Facial Recognition Tech That Can't Accurately Recognize Faces | The London Metropolitan Police sure loves its facial recognition tech. But it’s an unrequited love. The tech doesn’t appear to have done anything for the Met during its past deployments. |
| 31.01.2020 | London Police Move Forward With Full-Time Deployment Of Facial Recognition Tech That Can't Accurately Recognize Faces | The London Metropolitan Police sure loves its facial recognition tech. But it's an unrequited love. The tech doesn't appear to have done anything for the Met during its past deployments. |
| 16.08.2019 | A Facial Recognition ‘Epidemic’ is Sweeping the UK | An investigation conducted by privacy rights group Big Brother Watch has revealed a number of disturbing facial recognition deployments across the UK.
The rights group claims to have uncovered a facial recognition ‘epidemic’ at privately ow... |
| 11.07.2019 | UK Mass Surveillance Challenged at Europe’s Highest Human Rights Court | Privacy rights groups have appeared before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to argue against the UK Government’s mass surveillance practices.
The hearing saw government lawyers defend bulk surveillance practice... |
| 19.06.2019 | Liberty Defense uses 3D radar imaging and AI to detect concealed weapons | We are excited to bring Transform 2022 back in-person July 19 and virtually July 20 - 28. Join AI and data leaders for insightful talks and exciting networking opportunities. Register today!
In an era of unprecedented gun crime, including f... |
| 19.06.2019 | Liberty Defense uses 3D radar imaging and AI to detect concealed weapons | In an era of unprecedented gun crime, including frequent mass shootings, technology companies have come under scrutiny for their role in propagating such atrocities. Facebook, for example, was used to livestream the Christchurch terrorist a... |
| 13.06.2019 | The Appointment of a Scottish Biometrics Commissioner: Too Little Too Late? | The Scottish Government has finally unveiled plans to create a biometrics commissioner role to oversee how Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority handle biometric data in a lawful and ethical manner. It published a bill to establ... |
| 30.05.2019 | London police vow to "consider" ethics report on facial recognition tech that rights group calls illegal | A photo used in by the London Metropolitan Police to publicize its trial of Live Facial Recognition technology in the British capital. HANDOUT
London -- London's Metropolitan Police force has said it will "carefully consider the conten... |
| 10.05.2019 | UK tax office ordered to delete millions of unlawful biometric voiceprints | The U.K.’s data protection watchdog has issued the government department responsible for collecting taxes with a final enforcement notice, after an investigation found HMRC had collected biometric data from millions of citizens without obta... |
| 20.12.2018 | London Metropolitan Police Deploy Facial Recognition Tech Sporting A 100% Failure Rate | Facial recognition tech isn’t working quite as well as the agencies deploying it have hoped, but failure after failure hasn’t stopped them from rolling out the tech just the same. I guess the only way to improve this “product” is to keep te... |
| 19.12.2018 | London Met Police Trial Opt-Out Facial Recognition | London’s Metropolitan police have recently been trialling facial recognition technology in some of the busiest areas across the UK capital.
The trial took place on December 17 and 18 in Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus and Soho. But, in a... |
| 18.12.2018 | Polícia britânica vai usar reconhecimento facial para encontrar fugitivos, mas a precisão é horrível | A polícia do Reino Unido está realizando mais um teste de uma tecnologia que se baseia em câmeras com reconhecimento facial para identificar criminosos no meio da multidão. O objetivo é descobrir fugitivos entre a população que lota as ruas... |
| 17.12.2018 | London police to test out facial recognition technology | More On: london
Stonehenge's stone circle of megaliths to receive major facelift Bronx rapper arrested in London before festival performance London building where 72 were killed in 2017 fire to be taken down London home where Charles de Gau... |
| 17.12.2018 | London police to test out facial recognition technology | More On: london
America has two of the world's kinkiest cities Boxer Amir Khan 'shocked' after gunpoint robbery with wife in London Ridiculous twist throws Netflix's 'Anatomy of a Scandal' off the rails Uber is adding planes, trains, hotels... |
| 12.11.2018 | Concerns Raised Over Police Scotland’s Use of Cyber Kiosks | Officials on the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing have highlighted concerns over privacy rights, data security arrangements and the legality of using the devices which were introduced earlier in 2018.
More than 40 cyber kiosks have been de... |
| 13.09.2018 | “Bulk interception” by GCHQ (and NSA) violated human rights charter, European court rules | Enlarge / The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France, ruled that UK bulk data collection and mass surveillance regimes violated the European Charter of Human Rights.
Violetta Kuhn/picture alliance via Getty Images reade... |
| 26.07.2018 | Scottish Government Biometric Data Proposals Fall Short | The use of biometric data is an issue that has been plaguing the United Kingdom over the past several years. How can facial recognition technology, genetic information and fingerprints be used to enhance day-to-day life?
More recently, ques... |
| 22.05.2018 | U.K. Group Warns Police: Facial Recognition Is Inaccurate | A U.K.-based watchdog group called Big Brother Watch has now released a report highlighting just how inaccurate police-use of facial recognition software has been and warning that its use is spreading. In fact, according to the report, on a... |
| 21.05.2018 | Report Confirms Deep Flaws Of Automated Facial Recognition Software In The UK, Warns Its Use In The US Is Spreading | Techdirt has written many stories about facial recognition systems. But there’s a step-change taking place in this area at the moment. The authorities are moving from comparing single images with database holdings, to completely automated s... |
| 15.05.2018 | UK’s facial-recognition tech is ‘wrong 98 percent of the time’ | Originally Published by:
Aliens could be living in other universes NASA is sending a helicopter to Mars European Space Agency wants to go to Venus by 2032 Inside the UK's 'Westworld'-style robot factory
Facial-recognition technology the UK’... |
| 14.05.2018 | Facial Recognition Tech is “Not Yet Fit for Purpose” | A freedom of information request has shown that facial recognition software deployed by the Metropolitan Police Force produces an alarming number of false positives.
The Met Police Force’s systems produced 104 alerts based on facial recogni... |
| 24.04.2018 | Home Office Immigration Data Exemption ‘Fundamentally Unfair’ | The Windrush scandal has opened a can of worms for both the Home Office and Theresa May amid claims of hostile, xenophobic policy-making and a complete disregard for data held by government departments. In the midst of the scandal, the Home... |
| 16.04.2018 | Scottish Government Gives Go-Ahead For E-Voting Pilot | In response to a letter organised by Webroots Democracy and co-signed by 30 leading academics and charity bosses, Minister for Parliamentary Business Joe Fitzpatrick MSP has reaffirmed the Scottish Government’s commitment to the trialling o... |
| 13.04.2018 | UK Police Use Zipcode Profiles, Garden Size And First Names For AI-Based Custody Decision System | As you have doubtless noticed, Cambridge Analytica has been much in the headlines of late. There is still plenty of disagreement about the extent to which the company’s profiling tools provide the kind of fine-grained categorization of peop... |
| 03.04.2018 | Police Scotland Harvesting Mobile Data | Data harvesting has dominated the news in recent weeks, and now law enforcement has found themselves under the microscope. This weekend the Sunday Herald reported that Police Scotland have been secretly hacking phones and harvesting public ... |
| 29.03.2018 | Trust Us, We’re Politicians! MPs Seek Exemption From Data Protection Laws | The Cambridge Analytica affair has raised serious questions about the way in which our data is passed between big business and government; yet despite this, Westminster parties are set to delve deeper into our personal lives.
One may ask ‘w... |
| 06.02.2018 | Summary: The U.K. Court of Appeal Ruling and What’s Next for the Investigatory Powers Act | The U.K. Court of Appeal has held that Section 1 of an expired state surveillance law, the 2014 Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act, was unlawful as it related to “access to retained data,” or personal data held for criminal justice... |
| 30.01.2018 | UK keeps up its legal losing streak over mass surveillance | Yet another defeat in the courts for the UK government’s use of mass surveillance as an indiscriminate and, as it frequently turns out, unlawful investigatory tool.
Today the UK’s Court of Appeal handed down its ruling in a long running cha... |
| 02.01.2018 | New Approaches to Intelligence Oversight in the U.K. | The Snowden Effect
Few Britons were greatly exercised by the Snowden documents. For most of my compatriots, secret intelligence evokes thoughts of Bletchley Park and James Bond rather than the Stasi or extraordinary rendition. But the U.K. ... |
| 08.03.2017 | Body Cameras Used By UK Local Government To Catch People Dropping Litter And Walking Dogs | We’ve just written about the use of body cameras in UK schools. One reason these trials are taking place is probably because the technology is now relatively cheap, which lowers previous barriers to deploying it. So it should perhaps come a... |
| 29.11.2016 | Yes, the U.K. now has a law to log web users’ browsing behavior, hack devices and limit encryption | 2016 has been a very good year to bury very bad news. And political distractions perhaps explain why a bill that has been described as the most extreme surveillance legislation ever passed in a democracy has today passed into law in the U.K... |
| 17.11.2016 | UK parliament rubberstamps mass surveillance law | A controversial shoring up and expansion of state surveillance powers in the U.K. has been agreed upon by both houses of parliament, clearing the way for the formality of Royal Assent and the passing of the Investigatory Powers bill into la... |
| 11.07.2016 | Reports Shows UK Police Improperly Accessed Data On Citizens Thousands Of Times | A lot of the problem with access is the access itself. Give enough people a way to look up compromising information on nearly anyone and abuse is guaranteed. Human nature ensures this outcome. |
| 09.02.2016 | UK Surveillance Powers Bill Slammed For Privacy, Clarity And Targeting Failures | One of the UK parliamentary committees that is scrutinizing proposed new surveillance legislation has published its report on the draft Investigatory Powers bill — and it makes for uncomfortable reading for the government.
Another committee... |
| 04.11.2015 | U.K. Users’ Online Activity To Be Logged Under New Surveillance Law | The U.K. government has today published a draft bill setting out new surveillance powers that if passed into law will allow the security and intelligence agencies to more deeply probe Brits’ digital activity by requiring U.K. ISPs keep a lo... |
| 01.06.2015 | U.K. Police Making One Comms Data Request Every Two Minutes — Report | U.K. civil rights group Big Brother Watch has obtained data revealing the extent of domestic police forces’ access to web users’ communications data.
In a report published today the organisation says U.K. police forces made more than 733,00... |
| 30.09.2014 | Thought Crime: UK Leadership Wants To Ban Predicted 'Extremists' From Social Media, TV, Events | Theresa May, the current UK Home Secretary, has announced that, if re-elected, her party (the Conservatives) will push for “extremist disruption orders” which would effectively ban people declared “extremist” (using a very broad definition)... |
| 05.09.2012 | Evidence That UK Needs Mandatory Porn Filters? Informal Survey Done At One School | In the UK there is currently a campaign and associated petition from the organization “Safety Net: Protecting Innocence Online”, which calls for mandatory Net filtering of pornography — people would need to opt out of the system if they wan... |
| 15.04.2012 | Stop Being Evil: Google CAPTCHA Program Accused of Privacy Invasion | Of course it’s not new, Google gets this a lot. This time the breach is Google’s program using CAPTCHAs to interpret blurred house numbers. If Google has ever asked you to enter a set of blurred numbers when answering a security query for a... |
| 31.10.2011 | London police use cell phone tracking device to snoop on citizens (report) | London’s Metropolitan Police Force has bought a digital surveillance system used by the U.S. Secret Service and other governments to spy on its citizens’ cell phone activity, the Guardian is reporting.
The system is known as “ICT hardware,”... |
| 31.10.2011 | London police use cell phone tracking device to snoop on citizens (report) | We are excited to bring Transform 2022 back in-person July 19 and virtually July 20 - 28. Join AI and data leaders for insightful talks and exciting networking opportunities. Register today!
London’s Metropolitan Police Force has bought a d... |
| 31.08.2010 | A Rose Is A Rose Is A Rose… Until Police See It On CCTV, Say It's A Knife & Throw You In Jail For 3 Months | The UK has really been quite aggressive in installing CCTV surveillance cameras all over, trying to spot trouble before it escalates, but apparently they’re not very good at it sometimes. Glyn Moody points us to the story of the police spot... |
| - | Covid vaccine passports are being considered. And health experts and rights groups are deeply concerned | The U.S., U.K. and European Union are among those considering whether to introduce a digital passport that will allow citizens to show they have been vaccinated against Covid-19.
It is thought some form of certificate system could help stim... |
| - | Home Office lobbied for facial recognition in shops to tackle theft, report | As reported by The Guardian, the secret strategy was agreed on 8th March during a confidential meeting between policing minister Chris Philp, senior Home Office officials, and representatives from the private company Facewatch, which create... |
| - | Police force that protects the UK's nuclear power plants use cameras from sanctioned Chinese firm Hikvision | Surveillance cameras outside the Hikvision headquarters in Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang province Wednesday, May 22, 2019 LONG WEI/Future Publishing via Getty Images
The police who protect Britain's nuclear power plants use Hikvision ca... |
| - | Government commits to removing Chinese surveillance cameras from sensitive sites | A Cabinet Office statement released on Tuesday describes proposed amendments to the Procurement Bill, which is currently proceeding through Parliament.
It outlines several measures designed to "protect national security in government c... |
