UK Secretly Allows Facial Recognition Scans of Passport, Immigration Databases (theregister.com)
(Friday August 08, 2025 @11:21AM (msmash)
from the how-about-that dept.)
- Reference: 0178614832
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/08/1458253/uk-secretly-allows-facial-recognition-scans-of-passport-immigration-databases
- Source link: https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/08/uk_secretly_allows_facial_recognition/
An anonymous reader shares a report:
> Privacy groups report a surge in UK police facial recognition scans of databases secretly stocked with passport photos lacking parliamentary oversight. Big Brother Watch says the UK government has allowed images from the country's passport and immigration databases to be [1]made available to facial recognition systems , without informing the public or parliament.
>
> The group claims the passport database contains around 58 million headshots of Brits, plus a further 92 million made available from sources such as the immigration database, visa applications, and more. By way of comparison, the Police National Database contains circa 20 million photos of those who have been arrested by, or are at least of interest to, the police.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/08/uk_secretly_allows_facial_recognition/
> Privacy groups report a surge in UK police facial recognition scans of databases secretly stocked with passport photos lacking parliamentary oversight. Big Brother Watch says the UK government has allowed images from the country's passport and immigration databases to be [1]made available to facial recognition systems , without informing the public or parliament.
>
> The group claims the passport database contains around 58 million headshots of Brits, plus a further 92 million made available from sources such as the immigration database, visa applications, and more. By way of comparison, the Police National Database contains circa 20 million photos of those who have been arrested by, or are at least of interest to, the police.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/08/uk_secretly_allows_facial_recognition/
Consequences (Score:1)
by JBMcB ( 73720 )
I had an argument with my friend recently, who was annoyed that I wasn't more upset about ICE using various government databases to go after undocumented immigrants. I told him I had just assumed they've always been doing it. They aren't allowed to, there are all kinds of regulations that are supposed to prevent it. However, every few months there's a story about the FBI or IRS or SEC hoovering up private information against regulation and nothing comes of it. Nobody is fired, nobody is sanctioned, nothing
Re: (Score:2)
by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 )
Why isn't ICE allowed to go after illegal aliens? Isn't that exactly part of their job?
More likely to be stabbed in the street in London (Score:1)
So London is a pretty dangerous city by world standards. I think you're more likely to be stabbed in the street and mugged there than anywhere. The government's priorities are wrong.
Re: (Score:1)
It's really obvious you have travelled precisely nowhere.
Your opinion is worth les than fish poop.
Strange logic (Score:1)
1) The murder rate in London - indeed for general crime - is pretty low compared with major US cities
2) Given that we don't allow easy access to guns, the worst event is likely to be a stabbing, which is far slower to achieve
Re: (Score:2)
Or getting a [1]bottle of acid thrown in your face [wikipedia.org].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_attacks_in_the_United_Kingdom
Re: More likely to be stabbed in the street in Lon (Score:2)
Someone being wrong on the internet again? Guess I'd better check whether you're close to correct. London does not appear in this list of 50 cities ranked by homicide rate. [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org] While I cannot find equivalent rates of stabbings per city, this list of stabbing deaths per country may be a useful proxy. Notice that UK, at 0.08 deaths per 100000, is close to the safest in the world by that metric. With only 9 countries reporting lower. (I swear if slashdot removes these newli
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_homicide_rate
Re: More likely to be stabbed in the street in Lo (Score:2)
Sorry about the missing newlines. Also stabbing data was from here: [1]https://worldpopulationreview.... [worldpopul...review.com]
[1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/stabbing-deaths-by-country