Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:35 pm on 26 November 2019.
Thank you for your answer, First Minister. My constituents are having their human rights eroded by South Wales Police, mainly their article 8 rights. Liberty and the Electronic Frontier Foundation argue that the widespread use of facial recognition technology, employed by South Wales Police, clearly contravenes the right to privacy afforded by article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998. The Court of Appeal has granted Ed Bridges leave to appeal against its use, and Lord Justice Singh has stated that the case has a real prospect of success.
South Wales Police continue to use automatic facial recognition, despite the fact that it has been shown to be inaccurate, to provide false positives, and that the algorithms used display racial bias. On Saturday, AFR will be employed during the Wales-Barbarians match at the Principality Stadium. So, First Minister, will you call upon South Wales Police to stop using this technology against Welsh citizens until such time as the Home Office can safeguard our article 8 rights and ensure the software used is accurate and free of racial bias?