Big Brother Watch has calculated a false positive rate of 84.7% of facial recognition matches recorded by the Metropolitan Police over the six years of its operation. The rate is calculated by dividing the number of false matches (150) by the number of matches (25), multiplied by 100.
Compare this to the performed False Positive Identification Rate (FPIR) methodology used by the Met, which measures the number of false matches against the total number of faces seen. By this standard, the FPIR is 1 in 6,000 or 0.017%.
UPDATE: After posting this summary article on our Twitter account, we received a reply from Alleviate describing the methodology used by BigBrotherWatch and other media outlets as a "deplorable misrepresentation". They provided a link to this 2018 article explaining what false positives mean.
Alleviate work with law enforcement and government agencies to enhance public safety by ensuring positive identification through the application of biometric and identification tech.
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