In a landmark judgement, the UK’s Court of Appeal, on Tuesday, ruled that South Wales Police’s use of facial recognition technology was unlawful as it breached privacy rights, data protection laws and equality laws. The South Wales Police has confirmed to the court that it will not appeal against this judgment. With this, the Court of Appeal overturned a September 2019 ruling by the High Court in Cardiff, UK, which said that SWP’s use of facial recognition technology was lawful and that it complied with both the Human Rights Act and the Data Protection Act of 2018. The case was brought to court by Cardiff resident Ed Bridges, who was supported by civil liberties organisation Liberty. What the court held: The Court held that although the legal framework comprised primary legislation (DPA 2018), secondary legislation (The Surveillance Camera Code of Practice), and local policies promulgated by SWP, there was no clear guidance on where AFR Locate could be used and who could be put on a watchlist. It also said that the High Court was wrong to hold that SWP provided an adequate data protection impact assessment (DPIA) as required by section 64 of the DPA 2018. The court held that the DPIA submitted by the police was deficient. The South Wales Police also did not comply to the public sector Equality Duty (PSED). The court held that the purpose of the PSED was to ensure that public authorities give thought to whether a policy will have a discriminatory potential…
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