{"id":22945,"date":"2026-05-04T08:37:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/ai-facial-recognition-oversight-lagging-far-behind-technology-watchdogs-warn\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T08:37:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:37:21","slug":"ai-facial-recognition-oversight-lagging-far-behind-technology-watchdogs-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/ai-facial-recognition-oversight-lagging-far-behind-technology-watchdogs-warn\/","title":{"rendered":"AI facial recognition oversight lagging far behind technology, watchdogs warn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Exclusive: Biometrics commissioners say face-scanning not as effective as claimed and new laws needed to regulate use<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/ng-interactive\/2026\/may\/03\/how-does-live-facial-recognition-work-and-how-many-uk-police-forces-use-it\">How does live facial recognition work and how many police forces use it? <\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/may\/03\/guilty-until-proven-innocent-shoppers-falsely-identified-by-facial-recognition-struggle-to-clear-their-name\">Guilty until proven innocent: shoppers falsely identified by facial recognition<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Britain\u2019s biometrics watchdogs have warned that national oversight of AI-powered face scanning to catch criminals is lagging far behind the technology\u2019s rapid growth.<\/p>\n<p>With the Metropolitan police almost doubling the number of faces they scan in London over the past 12 months and a rising use of the technology by retailers in the UK, Prof William Webster, the biometrics commissioner for England and Wales, said the \u201cslow pace of legislation was trying to catch up with the real world\u201d and \u201cthe horse had gone before the cart\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>An independent audit of the Met\u2019s use of facial recognition technology (FRT) has been indefinitely postponed after the police requested delays.<\/p>\n<p>Polling shows 57% of people believe the systems are \u201canother step towards turning the UK into a surveillance society\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>A whistleblower claimed shop-based face-scanning systems had sometimes been misused by shop or security staff \u201cmaliciously\u201d adding members of the public to watchlists.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/ng-interactive\/2026\/may\/03\/ai-facial-recognition-oversight-lagging-far-behind-technology-watchdogs-warn\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/1c1b06bc7a14c84ec55ad4bed812f6d4df67ff2e\/1_0_2499_2000\/master\/2499.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=345c197901b0d40585077683b7726996\" title=\"AI facial recognition oversight lagging far behind technology, watchdogs warn\" \/>Exclusive: Biometrics commissioners say face-scanning not as effective as claimed and new laws needed to regulate use<\/p>\n<p>How does live facial recognition work and how many police forces use it?<br \/>\nGuilty until proven innocent: shoppers falsely identified by facial recognition<\/p>\n<p>Britain\u2019s biometrics watchdogs have warned that national oversight of AI-powered face scanning to catch criminals is lagging far behind the technology\u2019s rapid growth.<br \/>\nWith the Metropolitan police almost doubling the number of faces they scan in London over the past 12 months and a rising use of the technology by retailers in the UK, Prof William Webster, the biometrics commissioner for England and Wales, said the \u201cslow pace of legislation was trying to catch up with the real world\u201d and \u201cthe horse had gone before the cart\u201d.<br \/>\nAn independent audit of the Met\u2019s use of facial recognition technology (FRT) has been indefinitely postponed after the police requested delays.<br \/>\nPolling shows 57% of people believe the systems are \u201canother step towards turning the UK into a surveillance society\u201d.<br \/>\nA whistleblower claimed shop-based face-scanning systems had sometimes been misused by shop or security staff \u201cmaliciously\u201d adding members of the public to watchlists. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exclusive: Biometrics commissioners say face-scanning not as effective as claimed and new laws needed to regulate use How does live facial recognition work and how many police forces use it? Guilty until proven innocent: shoppers falsely identified by facial recognition Britain\u2019s biometrics watchdogs have warned that national oversight of AI-powered face scanning to catch criminals &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/ai-facial-recognition-oversight-lagging-far-behind-technology-watchdogs-warn\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">AI facial recognition oversight lagging far behind technology, watchdogs warn<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":22946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22945"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}