"As UK cracks down on protests, surveillance tech market grows", 05 October 2021

At the recent event, everything from mobile phone trackers and electrified, motion-sensitive border fences to facial recognition software and nano-drones was on show for government and corporate buyers.

... As UK policing becomes increasingly reliant on big data, several new bills set to expand police powers will boost real-time and retroactive data monitoring, as well as the use of facial recognition software and artificial intelligence (AI).

The most notable of these changes to UK policing is the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill...

Monumental in its scope, the bill has the power to criminalise selected marches and protests, with breaches of the law carrying a maximum sentence of up to 10 years.

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The London Metropolitan Police came under fire in early 2020 for the unannounced use of facial recognition, manufactured by Japanese tech firm NEC, outside the busy Oxford Circus station in central London. Human rights groups challenged the legality of its use.

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The IMSI catcher, a piece of hardware with a history of use at protests, was also on show at the London event.

Known in the US as a Stingray, it intercepts, tracks and monitors mobile phones en masse, by tricking them into treating it as a phone mast.

Stingrays gained visibility in the United States for their use against Black Lives Matter protesters and are rumoured to have been used by the FBI for years.

[…]

Privacy International submitted a freedom of information request regarding the use of IMSI catchers by UK law enforcement, which was rejected.