The Metropolitan Police has been collecting children's personal information and profiling data on a large scale to identify offenders and fight serious crime, according to documents seen by The Guardian. Project Alpha, which was launched in 2019, involved monitoring social media sites such as YouTube, looking for videos glorifying stabbings and shootings. The Met has already admitted mistakes over the project's original protection impact assessment document, which said "males aged 15 to 21 would be a focus of the project," the DPIA also promised not to share information without a "compelling" reason. In their defence, the Met claimed: "The meaning of large scale is not defined in the Data Protection Act 2018."
In a related article, The Guardian reveals Met Police claim that they consulted youth groups St Giles Trust, Ben Kinsella Trust, Redthread, Catch-22 and Safer London over Project Alpha. Yet, those same groups have confirmed they had no involvement with the police.
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