Leisure agency advised scanning workers faces is prohibited

The knowledge watchdog has ordered a leisure centre group to cease utilizing facial recognition tech to watch its workers.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) says Serco Leisure has been unlawfully processing the biometric knowledge of greater than 2,000 workers at 38 UK leisure services.

It did so to verify workers attendance – a observe the ICO stated was “neither fair nor proportionate”.

Serco Leisure says it should adjust to the enforcement discover.

But it added it had taken authorized recommendation previous to putting in the cameras, and stated workers had not complained about them in the course of the 5 years that they had been in place.

The agency stated it was to “make clocking-in and out easier and simpler” for staff.

“We engaged with our team members in advance of its roll-out and its introduction was well-received by colleagues,” the corporate stated in an announcement.

The ICO stated the corporate’s workers – who even have their fingerprints scanned – had not been supplied a transparent various to the gathering of their biometric knowledge.

It additionally discovered the agency had failed to indicate why the observe was obligatory when there have been much less intrusive methods of monitoring workers attendance, similar to ID playing cards or fobs.

John Edwards, the UK Information Commissioner, stated Serco Leisure had elevated the “power imbalance in the workplace”, and left workers feeling like that they had no alternative however at hand over their biometric knowledge.

“Serco Leisure did not fully consider the risks before introducing biometric technology to monitor staff attendance, prioritising business interests over its employees’ privacy,” he stated.

“Biometric data is wholly unique to a person so the risks of harm in the event of inaccuracies or a security breach are much greater – you can’t reset someone’s face or fingerprint like you can reset a password.,” he added.

The ICO introduced it was publishing new steering for all organisations which can be contemplating utilizing workers’ biometric knowledge, exhibiting them tips on how to adjust to knowledge safety legislation.

The expertise is deeply controversial, with privateness campaigners saying it infringes individuals’s rights, particularly as synthetic intelligence makes the methods extra highly effective.

However, legislation enforcement and a few companies say it’s a exact and environment friendly method of conserving individuals protected and catching criminals.