UK Police Forces Have Secret Facial Recognition Database Of 18 Million People, Many Innocent

techdirt.com The UK already has a pretty awful reputation when it comes to surveillance, what with millions ofCCTV cameras, DRIPA and two recent attempts to shove the Snooper's Charter through Parliament without scrutiny. So perhaps it should come as no surprise to discover that UK police forces have created a giant facial recognition database that includes hundreds of thousands of innocent people:

Police forces in England and Wales have uploaded up to 18 million "mugshots" to a facial recognition database -- despite a court ruling it could be unlawful. They include photos of people never charged, or others cleared of an offence, and were uploaded without Home Office approval, [the BBC's] Newsnight has learned.

As BBC News notes, the photos of innocent people have been retained in contempt of an explicit order from the court to remove them:

It comes despite a ruling in 2012, when two people went to the High Court to force the Metropolitan Police to delete their photos from databases.