News

Potential Jail For Clicking on Terror Links

Posted on by Andy Miller

The new UK Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 means that you could face up to 15 years in jail if you visit web pages where you can obtain information that’s deemed to be useful to ‘committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.

Really?

The government states that the Act is needed to “make provision in relation to terrorism; to make provision enabling persons at ports and borders to be questioned for national security and other related purposes; and for connected purposes”.

As shown online in at legislation.gov.uk, Chaper1, Section 3 of the Act, which relates to the amended Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 (collection of information) for example, states that unless you’re carrying out work as a journalist, or for academic research, if a person “views, or otherwise accesses, by means of the internet a document or record containing information of that kind” i.e. (new subsection) information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, you can be punished under the new Act.

Longer Sentences

The new Act increases the sentences from The Terrorism Act 2000, so that a sentence of 15 years is now possible in some circumstances.

The Most Terror Deaths in Europe in 2017

A Europol Report showed that the UK suffered more deaths as a result of terror attacks than any other country in Europe in 2017.  The bill which has now become the new law was first introduced on 6th June 2018 after calls to for urgent action to deal with terrorism, following three terrorist attacks on the UK within 3 months back in 2017.

Online Problem

One of the key areas that it is hoped the law will help to tackle is how the internet and particularly social media can be used to recruit, radicalise and raise money.

Criticism

The new Act, which received royal assent on 12th February, has been criticised by some as being inflexible, based too much upon ‘thought crime’, and being likely to affect more of those at the receiving end of information rather than those producing and distributing it.  The new law has also been criticised for infringing upon the privacy and freedom of individuals to freely browse the internet in private without fear of criminal repercussion, as long as that browsing doesn’t contribute to the dissemination of materials that incite violent or intolerant behaviour.

The new Act has been further criticised by MPs for breaching human rights and has been criticised by legal experts such as Max Hill QC, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, who is reported as saying that the new law may be likely to catch far too many people, and that a 15-year prison is “difficult to countenance when nothing is to be done with the material, it is not passed to a third party, and it is not being collected for a terrorist purpose.”

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

We may assume that most people will be unlikely to willingly view the kind of material that could result in a prison sentence, and many in the UK are likely to welcome a law that provides greater protection against those who plan and commit terror attacks or who are seeking to use online means to recruit, radicalise and raise money.  The worry is that such a law should not be so stringent and inflexible as to punish those who are not viewing or collecting material for terrorist purposes, and there are clearly many prominent commentators who believe that this law may do this.

Businesses, organisations and venues of all kinds are often caught up in (or are the focus of) terror attacks and/or must ensure that they invest in security and other measures to make sure that their customers, staff and other stakeholders are protected.  A safer environment for all in the UK is, of course, welcome, but many would argue that this should not be at the expense of the levels of freedom and privacy that we currently enjoy.

Kellogg’s Uses Virtual Reality To Sell More Cornflakes

Posted on by Andy Miller

Breakfast cereal manufacturer Kellogg’s has been working with third-party VR companies to help it determine the best way to display its new products in stores.

Who?

Kellogg’s is reported to have been working on a pilot scheme with Accenture and Qualcomm.  Accenture is a Dublin-based global management consulting and professional services firm with a strong digital skill-set, and Qualcomm Inc is a US-based world leader in 3G and next-generation mobile technologies.

What?

The pilot’s aim was to determine the best in-store placement for Kellogg’s new Pop Tart Bites.  This involved the use of Accenture’s Extended Reality (XR) software and Qualcomm’s VR headsets.  This combination gave test subjects an immersive and 360-degree experience of a simulated store environment in which they were able to ‘virtually’ pick products, place items in shopping trolleys and make purchases.

Monitoring

The VR headsets and XR software enabled Kellogg’s to closely and precisely monitor the user’s eye movements.  The analytics meant that this test was also able to yield data such as which new products the test subjects looked at and how long they looked at the products.

New Insights Reveal Surprising Result

Whereas traditional understanding of in-store product placement points towards eye-level (or close to it) as an ideal spot, the new insights that the technology provided in this pilot concluded that positioning the new product on a lower shelf could increase sales of the product by 18%.

Growing Trend

The use of a combination of VR, AR and analytics in retail environments has been a growing trend among big brands in recent times.

Brick-and-mortar retail chains have, however, been criticised for reacting slowly to the introduction of technology that could help them and have found themselves at a disadvantage to online retailers who have been able to use digital technology to hyper-personalise retail experiences for their customers. The brick-and-mortar retailers have also been faced with challenges caused by economic and cultural shifts, e.g. customers moving more towards online shopping.

Change In The Landscape

It’s not just manufacturer brands that are now able to take advantage of the technological change in the landscape to benefit sales.

Retailers now have access to many affordable and relatively easy-to-use AI development tools available, such as those offered by big tech vendors e.g.  Google, Microsoft and Amazon. This means that building an AI system/machine learning system has never been easier.  Retail chains, for example, also have the advantage of having access to massive amounts of data which can be used in a value-adding way with analytics and AI.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This story illustrates how the combination of new technologies such as VR, AI and advanced analytics have yielded new insights which could make a greater contribution to sales than more traditional methods.

The portable nature of the technology (and the AI aspect) mean that they are also able to deliver these value-adding insights more quickly and cheaply than before, thereby contributing to faster and more effective product launches and more successful product strategies.  The superior insights gained from combining new technologies such as these mean that it is now possible for business product placement decisions to be made that could positively impact total brand sales, versus only single product sales.

Tech Tip – Encrypting Documents Stored on Google Drive

Posted on by Andy Miller

If you use Google Drive to store files in the cloud but worried that Google doesn’t provide a true password protection feature, you may want to encrypt your files before uploading them.  Here’s how:

If you have Microsoft Office on your PC, it has a built-in encryption feature.

– Go to: File > Protect Document > Encrypt with Password.

– Upload the file to Google Docs.

– Google can’t read the file, but it can be downloaded and opened on any PC with Microsoft Office Installed (using the password).

– If you don’t have Microsoft Office, you could use Boxcryptor.  This is free for syncing one cloud storage service between two PCs.

– Install Boxcryptor (see boxcryptor.com).

– Enable Google Drive in Boxcryptor’s settings.

– Access Boxcryptor from Windows Explorer’s sidebar.

– Go to: Boxcryptor > Encrypt option, and watch the checkbox turn green.

The encrypted files will then be placed in Google Drive, but won’t be accessible unless you have Boxcryptor installed and logged in.

If you’re looking for a solution that’s free and can be used with any cloud storage service and any device, you may want to try Veracrypt (for Windows, macOS, and Linux).  It creates an encrypted container where you can store files you want and put them anywhere for safe keeping.

– Install Veracrypt (see veracrypt.fr).

– Create a new encrypted file container within your Google Drive folder.

– Reach that file from Veracrypt’s main window (it will show as if it were an external hard drive).

– Drag your sensitive files there and unmount the volume.

You will need Veracrypt installed on any PC to access the documents inside that container.

Could 5G’s High Frequency Be Dangerous?

Posted on by Andy Miller

5G may be the next generation of mobile internet that could provide new and innovative opportunities and boost to new industries, but there have been some concerns that its high-frequency mmWave spectrum could pose new health risks.

Long-Held Concerns

Ever since there have been mobile phones, there have always been concerns that prolonged exposure to low-energy, non-ionising electromagnetic radiation radio waves, the type used by current mobile phones, could increase a person’s risk of health problems such as developing cancerous brain tumours. This radio frequency (RF) radiation does not have enough energy to ionise an atom or molecule, and therefore, is unlikely to have enough energy to damage cell DNA in a way that would cause cancer.  This is the reason why recent research has shown that it is now believed to be unlikely that radio waves from mobile phones or base stations could increase the risk of any health problems.

Even though it is now generally accepted that normal use of current generation mobile phones is relatively safe, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has still given a cautious classification of RF radiation as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”.

What’s Different About 5G?

5G is different because it will use 3 Spectrum bands, low-band spectrum (LTE), mid-band spectrum, and what some believe to be the potentially dangerous mmWave high-frequency spectrum.

The mmWave spectrum, however, is still not close to the kind of ionising wavelengths that can cause damage to DNA.  In fact, mmWave high-frequency spectrum technology appears to be quite some way from the maximum human RF absorption frequency of about 70MHz. Also, mmWave will mostly be deployed in a spectrum that suffers from high reflection rates – 24 to 29GHz.  This should mean that any absorption by the body will be confined to the surface layers of the skin rather than the deeper tissue that is reached by lower frequency radiation.

So, Is It Safe?

Based on the science of radiation, and current evidence and limits relating to mobile phone use, there’s nothing to directly suggest 5G mmWave poses a significant health risk, but 5G is not here and in popular use yet, so more research will need to be done on the subject in future.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

5G represents a great opportunity for business.  Its increased speed and lower latency allow the downloading of films and games in seconds and watching them without any buffering, and this kind of speed will allow all kinds of new opportunities for presentation media e.g. in advertising, on social media and on websites.

Many different types of businesses could benefit from improved connectivity with remote workers or with salespeople in remote areas.

Also, the news from an O2 forecast is that 5G could deliver time savings that could bring £6 billion a year in productivity savings in the UK and that 5G-enabled tools and smart items could save UK householders £450 a year in food, council and fuel bills.

Safety, however, is a major concern for all businesses, but even though 5G will use a higher frequency, there is no compelling evidence to date to show that it would pose new health risks to users.  In the UK, it will be some time before 5G networks are up and running to any significant level, and this means that there will be time for research to be conducted in areas where 5G use is at a more advanced stage.

Report Says 90% of NHS Jobs Will Need Digital Skills, But AI and Robotics Could Enhance Services

Posted on by Andy Miller

A report, commissioned by health secretary Matt Hancock and led by US academic Eric Topol, has found that even though AI and robotics will enhance healthcare services, 90% of NHS staff will require fresh digital skills within 20-years.

Robotics and AI Enhancements

According to the report, although there has been fear that the implementation of AI and robotics to the NHS could be a step towards replacing human practitioners, they will in fact enhance services.

Smart Speakers Could Help

For example, the use of smart digital assistants such as Alexa and Siri could free-up more time for doctors which could be spent with patients. It is anticipated that smart speakers could reduce time spent on paperwork, possibly saving 5.7 million hours of GPs’ time across the country per year.

Mental Health Triage Bots?  

The suggestion that smart speakers could somehow be used as effective “mental health triage bots” by engaging in conversations while analysing text and audio for any suicidal ideas and emotions has been dismissed by mental health professionals. A smart speaker may be capable of listening and talking but as mental health professionals point out, smart speakers can’t pick up many of the visual cues that a skilled human professional can, they can’t quickly develop a relationship with a patient (as is needed in mental health assessment situations), and they may not be particularly useful in a situation where a patient is disordered.

Patient Records

The report indicates that smart speakers could also enhance the capabilities of NHS workers to update patient records.

Three Main Changes

In the report, Mr Topol predicts how, over the next 20 years there will be three main developments that will change patients lives, and how training should begin now to ensure that NHS staff have the skills to make the most of those changes going forward.  According to Eric Topol, who is a cardiologist, geneticist, and digital medicine researcher, the three main changes will be:

  1. Patients having their genome sequenced.  This can help determine things like a person’s predisposition to certain diseases and how they will respond to medication or treatment.
  2. Patients being able to generate and interpret much more of their own health data at home.
  3. AI helping to exponentially increase the speed, accuracy and scalability of medical data interpretation.

Digital Appointments

Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who commissioned the report, has also called on GP practices in the UK to be able to offer digital appointments within five years e.g. using Skype and Google.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

According to this report, AI, robotics and other new technologies could provide enhancements that may enable patients to be ultimately better informed about their own medical position and may help NHS staff to deliver a better quality of service while freeing them from spending too much time on paperwork and spending that time instead with patients.

There is, however, a challenge to be met in terms of making sure that NHS staff receive training that will enable them to make the best use of new digital technologies, and this will need planning and will have cost implications.

It is also important to consider, however, that the amount of data gathered about patients e.g. genomic information could be intrusive and has security and privacy risks.  Also, if AI bots are used to handle some communications with patients, those patients need to be informed that they are communicating with a bot and not a person.  Too much reliance on technological innovation could also bring some inequalities. For example, poorer people and ethnic minorities have been shown to have a lower uptake of things like digital health records.

UK Solar-Powered High Latitude Drone Presents New Mapping Opportunities

Posted on by Andy Miller

The Astigan high-altitude “pseudo-satellite” (HAPS) drone, built in Somerset using British Technology, and co-developed with Ordinance Survey, could succeed where other earth-mapping efforts by tech giants have failed, and provide a wealth of other opportunities.

High Altitude Hover For 90 Days, With No Re-Fuelling

The fixed-wing aircraft, which has solar panels across 38m wingspan and only weighs 149kg (328lb), can be set to hover for 90 days at a time at an altitude of 67,000ft (c. 20,420m), without re-fuelling.  It is controlled from the ground and can be set to map large areas of interest or made to hover continuously over one geographical area.

Carries Cameras

The Astigan ‘drone’ has been developed to carry cameras like those on mapping aircraft, and due to its co-development with Ordnance Survey, its initial purpose is to provide high-resolution images for mapping, supported by field surveyors on the ground, and data from local authorities and the land registry.

Advantages

The advantages that this kind of drone has over existing mapping technologies such as satellites are that:

  • It’s much cheaper to build and operate e.g. there are no huge satellite launch costs.
  • It provides higher-resolution images.
  • It is more flexible e.g. it is easier to divert a drone than an orbiting satellite, and several drones can be deployed at a time, perhaps in the same area.

The Technology

The technology and know-how come from the 1999 ‘Solar Impulse’ project where Brian Jones, former RAF pilot and balloonist, recorded the first non-stop around the world balloon flight.

Same Factory As Facebook Drones

Just as this project appears to have succeeded where drone-development projects by tech giants have failed, it operates from the same factory that once housed Facebook’s Aquila internet drone project until Facebook abandoned its drone plans.

Opportunities

As Neil Ackroyd (co-founder of Bridgwater, Somerset-based Astigan) has been quick to point out, even though the drone has many advantages over other earth-mapping methods, it has a huge number of potential other uses.  For example, the drone (or fleets of drones) could be used to help with land management and urbanisation, monitoring environmental change, and even helping with environmental disasters e.g. hovering over areas where there are forest fires.

It is, of course, also possible to envisage that drones like these could have military and state surveillance uses.

Trouble Over Bridgwater – Criticism

Back in 2013, The state-owned national mapping agency Ordinance Survey was criticised by some for paying £700,000 for what was then the little-known aerospace company Astigan.  OS was the subject of complaints by some competitors and suppliers of OS that it may have stifled competition, and may, in effect, have received illegal state aid.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The ability to provide a low-cost, effective way of supplying high resolution photos and maps of the earth could feed into (and add value to the work of) many businesses and organisations around the world.  The opportunities are many, and it is good news too that the technology has been developed in the UK.  It has been reported that the platform will also be made available to companies who want to attach their own sensors and cameras to the drones e.g. to track climate change. 

ROI Index Shows That Facebook & Google Offer Best Value For Mobile Advertisers

Posted on by Andy Miller

Marketing report company Singular has produced an ROI index for mobile advertising, based on its own research which shows that Facebook and Google appear to offer the best value for mobile advertisers.

The Research

Singular sampled over $1.5 billion of spend in mobile advertising, including over a half a billion installs and almost $3 billion in revenue.  From this, the company was able to produce an ‘ROI Index’ that ranks the best-performing ad networks for mobile marketers on iOS and Android globally.

Singular’s backers include Norwest Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Thomvest Ventures, and Method Capital, and Singular’s customers (as a marketing intelligence platform) include companies like Airbnb, LinkedIn, Symantec, and Twitter.

Facebook & Google – Best Value

Given the popularity and scale of Google and Facebook, and the economies thereof, and the fact that they can deliver results, it is perhaps not surprising that Singular’s ROI Index put Facebook and Google at the top for delivering the best return on investment.

The Index showed that Facebook won the global rankings, but Google came top in all three key regional rankings: EMEA, APAC, and Americas.

Ad Fraud Levels Also Taken Into Account

Singular’s ROI Index also considered advertising fraud levels, and it has been reported that a record number of 15 companies were deleted from its rankings this time around because of “excessive” fraud.

Snap No.3

The Index shows Snap (the advertising network for Snapchat) improving its rankings on most of the lists, and it is now the No. 3 network for non-gaming ads on both iOS and Android.

Other Findings

The ROI Index also showed other important results for:

  • Japan-based mobile messaging service LINE (700M users), ranked three times.
  • Twitter, which showed a resurgence with 11 rankings on global, regional, and platform-specific charts. These included second on iOS for retention: providing users/customers who stay engaged.
  • Unity, the games ad network, ranking third on Android and fourth on iOS globally.
  • BlueStacks, the US technology company that produces the BlueStacks App Player and other cloud-based cross-platform products, is delivering significant ROI on its own on-platform ad network.

Android More Volatile

Singular’s ROI Index also shows that one-third of the global Android index is brand-new compared to only two new networks joining the corresponding iOS index.  This indicates that the Android ad ecosystem is more volatile than iOS.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

With all of us now using mobiles for our personal and business lives, mobile advertising has become a very important way for businesses to reach customers.  Google and Facebook are widely known among marketers, but many marketers now know they need to consider using more than just two media partners in order to get the most value out of their advertising budgets.

In an increasingly complicated and segmented media marketplace an ROI Index such as the one produced by Singular can provide valuable marketing intelligence, perhaps provide new ideas for promising ad networks to try, and can give businesses a way to get some measurement of ROI from different touchpoints across multiple channels that can help guide ad spend in order to produce the best value results.

Russia Plans Disconnect From Rest of World Internet For Cyber-Defence Test

Posted on by Andy Miller

Russia has set itself a deadline of 1st April to test “unplugging” the entire country from the global Internet for reasons relating to defence and control.

Giant Intranet Dubbed “Runet”

The impending test of a complete ‘pulling up of the drawbridge’ from the rest of the world is being planned in order to ensure compliance with a new (draft) law in Russia called the Digital Economy National Program.  This will require Russia’s ISPs to show that they can operate in the event of any foreign powers acting to isolate the country online with a “targeted large-scale external influence” i.e. a cyber-attack.

The plan, which is being overseen by Natalya Kasperskaya, co-founder of Kaspersky the antivirus company and former wife of CEO Eugene, will mean that Russia can unplug from the wider Internet, and create its own internal ‘Intranet’ (the ‘Runet’) where data can still pass between Russian citizens and organisations from inside the nation rather than being routed internationally.

Moving Router Points Inside Russia

A move of this scale involves attempting to move the country’s key router points inside Russia. This means that ISPs will have to show that they can direct all Internet traffic entering and leaving Russia through state-controlled routing points, whereby traffic can be filtered so that, if required, traffic destined for outside Russia is discarded, and attempts to launch cyber-attacks on Russia can be more easily detected and thwarted.

Own Version of DNS

Other measures needed to give Russia the ability to completely unplug include building its own version of the net’s DNS address system. This is currently overseen by 12 organisations outside Russia, but copies of the net’s core address book now exist inside Russia.

Why?

Russia has been implicated in many different international incidents that could provoke cyber-attack reprisals and misinformation interference. For example, the alleged interference in US presidential election campaign and UK referendum, and the Novichok attack in Salisbury.  There has also been deterioration of the relationship between the US and Russia, and widespread criticism of Russia in the western media.

Censorship and Control?

Even though the word from Russia is that the ability to ‘unplug’ is for defence from external aggression, many commentators see it as a move to be able to exert more state control in a way that is perhaps similar that seen in China with its extensive firewall.

In Russia, control of social media could, for example, thwart attempts from the people to organise mass protests against Putin, such as those seen in 2011-13.

Also, the ability to control what people can see and say online can mean that websites that promote anti-state views and information can be blacklisted. It has been reported that there is already an extensive blacklist of banned websites and that Russia now requires popular bloggers to register with the state.  There have also been reports of Russians facing fines and jail for social media posts that have been judged to have ridiculed the Kremlin or Orthodox Church.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Business and trade tend to benefit from open channels of communication, and when states move to shut down communication channels in this way, it prevents the promotion and advertising of products, creates costs and bureaucracy, and damages the prospects and competitiveness of those organisations exporting to and from Russia. This kind of communications shutdown may be useful for the purposes of the state, but it can only really be harmful for international trade, and for those businesses within Russia itself looking to sell overseas.

Anything that portrays the image of a controlling and/or inward-looking state can also damage industries such as tourism and can make companies in those states appear to be risky to deal with.

Tech Tip – Link your Android Phone To Your Windows PC or Laptop

Posted on by Andy Miller

If you’ve ever emailed yourself a photo or screenshot to get it from your phone to your computer or uploaded photos to e.g. Google Photos or Dropbox and then download them onto your PC, you may want to try Microsoft’s ‘Your Phone’ app.  With the app, you can link and sync your Android phone to your Windows PC or laptop and simply drag and drop photos or screenshots, plus you can receive and send text messages from your phone on your computer. Here’s how to set it up:

This works for PCs or laptops running Windows 10 April 2018 Update (Version 1803) or later, and Android phones running Android 7.0 Nougat or later.  Both devices should be connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

On your PC or laptop, type “Your Phone” in the search bar, scroll to launch Microsoft Store, find the “Your Phone” app.

Download and install the Your Phone app for Windows 10 from Microsoft e.g. here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/your-phone/9nmpj99vjbwv?activetab=pivot%3Aoverviewtab

Next, install the counterpart on your Android phone. For example, when you launch the app on your PC, type your number in to receive the install the app link via text on your phone. Alternatively, you could visit the Google Play Store, type “Your Phone Companion” into the search bar and then Install the app on your Android phone.

The two apps should sync, and once you’ve answered and granted the permissions questions on your phone, you should see your phone appear in the Windows “Your Phone” app on your computer.

Click to access recent photos or messages + see the Settings page.

Man Fined After Hiding From Facial Recognition Cameras

Posted on by Andy Miller

A man was given a public order fine after being stopped by police because he covered his face during a trial of facial recognition cameras in Romford, London.

What Facial Recognition Trial?

A deliberately “overt” trial of live facial recognition technology by the Metropolitan Police took place in the centre of Romford, London, on Thursday 31st January.  This was supposed to be the first day of a two-day trial of the technology, but the second day was cancelled due to concerns that the forecast snow would only bring a low level of footfall in the area.

Live facial recognition trials of this kind use vehicle-mounted cameras linked to a police database containing photos from a watchlist of selected images from the police database.  Officers are deployed nearby so that they can stop those persons identified and matched with suspects on the database.

In the Romford trial, the facial recognition filming was reported to have taken place from a parked police van and, according to the Metropolitan Police, the reason for the use of the technology was to reduce crime in the area, with a specific focus on tackling violent crime.

Why The Fine?

The trial also attracted the attention of human rights groups, such as Liberty and Big Brother Watch, members of which were nearby and were monitoring the trial.

It was reported that the man who was fined, who hasn’t been named by police, was observed pulling his jumper over part of his face and putting his head down while walking past the police cameras, possibly in response to having seen placards warning that passers-by were the subjects of filing by police automatic facial recognition cameras.

It has been reported that the police then stopped the man to talk to him about what they may have believed was suspicious behaviour and asked to see his identification. According to police reports, it was at this point that the man became aggressive, made threats towards officers and was issued with a penalty notice for disorder as a result.

8 Hours, 8 Arrests – But Only 3 From Technology

Reports indicate that the eight-hour trial of the technology resulted in eight arrests, but only three of those arrests were as a direct result of facial recognition technology.

Criticism

Some commentators have criticised this and other trials for being shambolic, for not providing value for money, and for resulting in mistaken identity.

Research Questions Reliability

Research by the University of Cardiff examined the use of facial recognition technology across several sporting and entertainment events in Cardiff for over a year, including the UEFA Champion’s League Final and the Autumn Rugby Internationals.  The research found that for 68% of submissions made by police officers in the Identify mode, the image had too low a quality for the system to work. Also, the research found that the locate mode of the FRT system couldn’t correctly identify a person of interest for 76% of the time.

Also, in December 2018, ICO head Elizabeth Dunham was reported to have launched a formal investigation into how police forces use facial recognition technology (FRT) after high failure rates, misidentifications and worries about legality, bias, and privacy.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

It has been reported that spending over £200,000 on the deployment of facial recognition trials on 6 deployments between August 2016 and July 2018, no arrests were made.  On the surface, these figures suggest that, although the technology has the potential to add value and save costs, and although businesses in town centres are likely to welcome efforts to reduce crime, the trials to date don’t appear to have delivered value-for-money to taxpayers.

There was also criticism of the facial recognition system used in Soho, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square over two days in the run-up to Christmas, where freedom campaigners such as Big Brother Watch and Liberty were concerned about mixed messages from police about how those who turn away from facial recognition cameras mounted in/on police vans because they don’t want to be scanned could be treated.

Despite some valid worries and criticism, most businesses and members of the public would probably agree that CCTV systems have a real value in helping to deter criminal activity, locating and catching perpetrators, and providing evidence for arrests and trials.  There are, however, several concerns, particularly among freedom and privacy groups, about how just how facial recognition systems are being (and will be) used as part of policing e.g. overt or covert, issues of consent, possible wrongful arrests due to system inaccuracies, and the widening of the scope of its purpose from the police’s stated aims.  Issues of trust where our personal data is concerned are still a problem, as are worries about a ‘big brother’ situation for many people.