Join ‘The End of Privacy in Public’ campaign to demand that your MP finds out if dystopian facial recognition cameras are being deployed in your local area.
We’re facing the end of privacy in public, because of the unchecked rise of facial recognition technology (FRT) in public spaces, shops and bars.
As FRT proliferates, your face will become an ID card, a fingerprint, a QR code and a barcode all combined - to be monitored by your local council, the Home Office, the police, even the owner of your local cornershop.
In our recent YouGov survey, we learned that your MP probably doesn’t even know if FRT’s being used in your local area. How can your own MP not know?! Our survey also found that well over half of of MPs either wrongly think there is an FRT law or just don’t know if there is a law!
Our MPs are asleep at the wheel, speeding us down a road that leads to a facial recognition dystopia.
‘The End of Privacy in Public’ campaign is demanding that your MP wakes up! We want YOU to write to your local MP and demand they find out if FRT is being used in your area. It takes 2 minutes!
Step 1
Go to the UK Parliament website and type in your postcode to find you local MP's email address.
Step 2
Click here to send an email to your MP, and then paste your MP’s email address in the ‘to’ field. If you want to, you can also cc [email protected] so that we can track which MPs are being contacted (See the Disclaimer at the bottom of this page). Please also add your postal address in the email so that your MP can verify you are their constituent.
Or
Copy and paste the letter text below in to an email, and paste your MP’s email address in the ‘to’ field, and if you want to copy PI in, please put [email protected] into the ‘cc’ field. Please add "Is facial recognition technology being used in our constituency?" as the email header:
Dear MP,
A recent survey of over 100 MPs, carried out by YouGov on behalf of Privacy International, indicates that 70% of MPs don’t know whether facial recognition technology (FRT) is being used in public spaces in their constituency. As your constituent, I’m writing to ask you to take action to find out how FRT is being used where I live. I live at [PLEASE INSERT YOUR FULL ADDRESS SO THAT THE MP CAN CONFIRM THAT YOU ARE THEIR CONSTITUENT].
I am concerned that the Home Office is making plans to enhance the technology further by using the UK passport photo database to identify individuals. And there are reports of closed door meetings between the Minister for Policing, Chris Philp, and the private company Facewatch, to increase the use of FRT across retail spaces.
While I appreciate this is related to concerns regarding shoplifting, the privacy of your constituents must not be sacrificed to combat petty crime.
Widespread and unchecked use of facial recognition tech is creating a surveillance society where everyone is identified and tracked everywhere they go. This poses serious threats to our human rights; not only the right to privacy but our right to protest and freedom of expression, and it appears that all this is taking place within a democratic vacuum without any specific law in place to protect us.
I believe the public have a right to know if FRT is being used in their local area and in public spaces. So, I would greatly appreciate you making representations to obtain the below information on my behalf:
1. Tell me (a) if and (b) how FRT is being used in my area.
2. Contact the local retail consortium and/or write to the largest local retailers and event spaces, to ascertain if they are using FRT in this constituency;
3. Contact the Chief Constable to demand information of the local police force’s deployment of FRT, or upcoming plans of deployment, in our local public spaces.
Please can you relay the above information back to me and cc [email protected] into your response.
Thank you in advance for considering taking this important action on my behalf to protect our privacy.
Sincerely,
DISCLAIMER: We (obviously!) take your privacy seriously. By cc’ing us into your email to your MP, PI will collect some of your personal information such as your email address. We will only retain your email for the purposes of tracking responses to our campaign. We will delete your email(s) and any data within it, no later than six months after we receive your email(s). If your MP responds to you, cc’ing Privacy International, we may keep their response and any data within it if it is necessary for our work. We will delete any unnecessary data within those responses no later than six months after we receive the email. Any data we receive from you or your MP will be treated in accordance with our Privacy Policy.