Leisure centres scrap biometric systems to keep tabs on staff amid UK data watchdog clampdown
Firms such as Serco and Virgin Active pull facial recognition and fingerprint scan systems used to monitor staff attendance
February 2024
Serco ordered to stop using facial recognition technology to monitor staff
Biometric data of more than 2,000 staff at 38 leisure centres was unlawfully processed to check attendance, watchdog finds
December 2023
EU agrees tough limits on police use of AI biometric surveillance
Measure bans use of real-time data without judicial authorisation in nearly all circumstances and covers both public and private spaces
July 2023
Home Office secretly backs facial recognition technology to curb shoplifting
Covert government strategy to install electronic surveillance in shops raises issues around bias and data, and contrasts sharply with the EU ban to keep AI out of public spaces
March 2023
Panera to adopt palm-reading payment systems, sparking privacy fears
Prof Nita Farahany: ‘We need a new human right to cognitive liberty’
February 2023
Police in England and Wales botch more than 1,500 DNA samples
March of the robots: how biometric tech could kill off paper passports
October 2022
Information commissioner warns firms over ‘emotional analysis’ technologies
Companies ‘should not make meaningful decisions based on technology not backed by science’
August 2022
Fears over China’s access to genetic data of UK citizens
Biobank urged to review transfer of information for medical research
May 2022
Mastercard launches ‘smile to pay’ system amid privacy concerns
The company’s stab at the biometrics checkout market has raised debate about data storage and tracking
October 2021
‘Conditioning an entire society’: the rise of biometric data technology
The Guardian view on biometric technology in schools: watch closely
September 2021
Opinion
The Taliban are showing us the dangers of personal data falling into the wrong hands
Emrys Schoemaker
Digital ID systems are a powerful development tool, providing a legal identity to millions, but their misuse can be deadly
August 2021
The networker
Beware state surveillance of your lives – governments can change for the worse
John Naughton
With Afghan citizens’ data now in the hands of the Taliban, assumptions about controls that check misuse of intelligence are wide of the mark
May 2021
Investors flock to life sciences as UK sector breaks funding record
Covid crisis spurs growing interest in drugmakers, diagnostics and medical equipment firms
March 2021
Nils Pratley on finance
Oxford Nanopore float offers London a proper tech future
Nils Pratley
Oxford Nanopore to float on London Stock Exchange
December 2020
This is Europe
Sci-fi surveillance: Europe's secretive push into biometric technology
Millions in EU science funding is being used to develop new tools for policing and security. But who decides how far we need to submit to artificial intelligence?
February 2020
Watchdog rejects Met's claim that he supported facial recognition
Biometrics commissioner says force was wrong to say he backed use of the technology
