The historic coronation of Britain's King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla will take place in Westminster Abbey on Saturday, May 6, 2023. The security for the important event is being constantly monitored. The procession and ceremony will be attended by heads of state and government officials, will be guarded by thousands of police officers.
According to The Metro, the Metropolitan Police is considering using facial recognition in crowds during the coronation in addition to a number of other security measures. Using a watch list of individuals who the police perceive to be a threat to public safety. This could include wanted criminals or offenders under strict licence conditions, the force said.
But human rights campaigners have hit out at the use of the technology.
"Facial recognition is a dystopian tool that violates our rights and threatens our liberty. We all have the right to go about our lives without being surveilled and monitored - but this weekend, anyone in the vicinity of the King's coronation is at risk of having their face scanned by this oppressive technology," said Emmanuelle Andrews, policy and campaigns manager at Liberty.
'In 2020, we won a ground-breaking case against facial recognition - with a judge ruling that this tool breaches our privacy rights, data protection laws, and equality laws. This use of facial recognition will have a huge impact on all of our rights to protest," he added.
"We have already seen a huge crackdown on protest ahead of the coronation, with new measures brought in this week to further restrict the ways in which people can make their voices heard," he continued.
Demanding a ban on this technology, the activist said, "Now it's likely that facial recognition will be used to monitor anyone who wants to exercise their right to protest-an extremely worrying development. Facial recognition is a threat to our freedom; it needs to be banned."
