‘Urgent clarity’ sought over racial bias in UK police facial recognition technology

Testing showing racial bias against black and Asian people prompts watchdog to ask Home Office for explanation

The UK's data protection watchdog has asked the Home Office for urgent clarity" over racial bias in police facial recognition technology before considering its next steps.

The Home Office has admitted that the technology was more likely to incorrectly include some demographic groups in its search results", after testing by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) of its application within the police national database.