facial recognition

The UK convenience store giant ‘Southern Co-op’ is facing the possibility of regulatory intervention and legal challenge following a complaint made by UK civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch (BBW) regarding the use of surveillance cameras in 35 Southern Co-op stores. Images of customers that a member of staff ‘reasonably expects’ to be committing ‘crime or disorder’ are captured and transformed into biometric data. The data of those ‘identified as an offender’ is then stored and checked against the database of facial recognition technology provider, ‘Facewatch.’
Continue Reading The Southern Co-op – Is the Use of ‘Spy’ Cameras Breaching UK Data Protection Laws?

Digital Facial RecognitionLast week (9th July), the ICO announced that it would join forces with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to investigate the use of personal information, including biometric data, by Clearview AI, Inc. (Clearview). Limited information is available so far, but given the focus of the investigation, this is an important step in determining data protection rights and obligations, where information is ‘scraped’ from ‘publicly available’ sources, for the purposes of tackling crime.
Continue Reading ICO and Australian Information Commissioner Team-up to Investigate Clearview AI, Inc. Facial Recognition Tool and Data Scraping

Digital Facial RecognitionIn a surprising turn of events, the California State Senate significantly amended California Assembly Bill 1281 (“AB-1281”) late last week.  AB-1281 initially proposed enhanced protections for the use of facial recognition technologies, which have now been removed.  The amended AB-1281 now focuses on extending by one year the B2B and employee exemptions provided for under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), previously discussed here. Those exemptions currently become inoperative on January 1, 2021; if AB-1281 is enacted, they would become inoperative on January 1, 2022.  Note, however, that if the California Privacy Rights Act (read our recent analysis here) passes on the upcoming November 3rd  ballot, these exemptions will be extended for an additional year, and will become inoperative on January 1, 2023.
Continue Reading Amendments to CA AB-1281: Addition by Subtraction?