Scotland Yard has banned officers from using a controversial
facial recognition search engine after it was accessed
thousands of times from
Metropolitan Police computers.
PimEyes, which allows users to upload photographs of people and match them with images of the same individuals elsewhere on the internet, has given rise to concern from privacy campaigners that it could be used by
stalkers or to carry out surveillance.
MPs have warned that the technology is “invasive and dangerous” and called for it to be banned from open access.
But data released under Freedom of Information (FOI) rules to
i and Liberty Investigates show the PimEyes site, which is based in Tbilisi, Georgia, was visited from Metropolitan Police computers 2,337 times in a
three-month period since the start of this year.
The Met, along with other UK police forces, already has access to facial recognition software capable of matching images of suspects with
official databases.
But unlike those tools, PimEyes could be used by an officer or staff member without an official audit trail of searches or safeguards around which images are submitted.