Letter: Facial Recognition? Beware What You Wish For

Published on: 5 Dec, 2025
Updated on: 5 Dec, 2025

From Jim Allen

In response to: comment from Frank Emery on: Councillors Demand Police Facial Recognition Vans Mothballed Pending Consultation

The assertion: “If you’re not doing anything wrong, you’ve got nothing to fear,” is a common adage that warrants critical examination in the context of modern surveillance capabilities.

Concerns arise regarding the potential for “guilt by association,” where proximity or incidental contact with an individual of interest could lead to unwarranted scrutiny. For instance, the observation of an individual’s presence near a person under investigation could be misinterpreted as evidence of a relationship or involvement.

Existing data collection methods further amplify these concerns. The existing serialisation of vote slips, for example, creates a potential database of individual voting patterns. Similarly, smart meters offer the capability for remote control of utilities, and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems generate a comprehensive record of vehicle movements.

The rapid integration of these disparate databases presents a significant risk of “guilt by location,” where an individual’s presence at a particular site could be misconstrued as evidence of wrongdoing.

With digital ID visible database and the security forces’ “back database”, which no one is allowed to see, the risk is extremely high with this government.

The implications of such interconnected databases are substantial particularly when considering the limitations of current technologies. Facial recognition, for instance, has demonstrated varying levels of accuracy.

Personal experiences, such as a device failing to recognize an individual due to a change in hair condition or a passport control system consistently failing to identify an individual, highlight the imperfections of this technology.

There is no stopping this security overreach but I say beware what you wish for, they already can track your journey from Guildford to Glasgow, now they will catch you talking to the “wrong” person.