Has Britain Gone Too Far With Its Digital Controls?

As a couple with a stroller walked by a police van adorned with cameras on one of London’s busiest shopping streets this month, officers stopped the man for questioning. After several minutes, they put him in handcuffs and took him away.

Such scenes have become increasingly common as British authorities have ramped up the use of live facial recognition. Since January 2024, more than 1,000 people have been charged or cited in London with the help of the technology, which scans people’s faces and compares their image in real time to a database of about 16,000 wanted individuals, according to the police.

British authorities have also recently expanded oversight of online speech, tried weakening encryption and experimented with artificial intelligence to review asylum claims. The actions, which have accelerated under Prime Minister Keir Starmer with the goal of addressing societal problems, add up to one of the most sweeping embraces of digital surveillance and internet regulation by a Western democracy.

That has put Britain at the forefront of a debate over the choices that democracies will have to make about security, privacy, civil liberties and governing in the digital age. Critics contend that the nation has gone too far, intruding on the daily lives of citizens with technology and regulation. But others argue the measures are a pragmatic adaptation to technological change to strengthen safety and national security.

“There’s a big philosophical debate going on here,” said Ryan Wain, the executive director of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a London group started by the former prime minister that supports the government’s policies. “There’s a big question about what is freedom and what is safety.”

In a statement, Britain’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, which oversees digital policy, said the public expected the government to utilize modern technology.