FOI request detail

facial recogmition and tracking technology

Request ID: FOI-1541-1819
Date published: 03 October 2018

You asked

Dear Transport for London, It has come to my attention that TfL plans to operate facial recognition and tracking technology in stations associated with the Crossrail project. I believe that such technology does not currently operate anywhere in the TfL transport network and as such ask for the following information: 1. Does TfL have or know of plans by another authority to roll out facial recognition technology in any stations or other locations? If so, please could you provide a list of the locations where operation is planned. For each station where operation is planned, please could you provide details of the system proposed, including the system manufacturer, the type of installation (e.g. retrofit using existing cameras, retrofit using new cameras, designed into new construction), data collection type (indiscriminate tracking, tracking of persons of interest only, location-local alerts about persons of interest, flow counting, etc.) 2. If TfL currently operates facial recognition technology in any locations please provide the same information for the operational locations as for proposed locations, namely the system used and manufacturer, installation type and data collection type. In addition, for each location please also provide the date of installation of the system. 3. Assuming that such plans do exist, please provide information about how TfL came to the decision to use facial recognition technology for the first time. I expect documents including project proposals, business cases, consultations with stakeholders and minutes of relevant board meetings, although any additional relevant documents would be appreciated. 4. For what purposes would facial recognition data be collected and with whom would the data be shared? If a draft privacy statement [1] exists, please provide it. 5. For all proposed and operational systems, please provide TfL's requirements for the system and the manufacturer's proposed specification, from the procurement process, as well as the as-built specification (if it exists and differs from the proposed specification) [2]. [1]: The comparable document for CCTV is located here: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/privacy-and-cookies/cctv [2]: I only expect a high level specification (marketing checklist), not full technical details of operation or engineering drawings.

We answered

TfL Ref: 1541-1819

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 6 September 2018 asking for information about Facial Recognition Technology.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold the information you require.

I can confirm that neither Crossrail nor TfL are installing any facial recognition technology. Neither we nor any other organisation currently have any plans to install it across our network.

If this is not the information you are looking for, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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