Facial recognition was used to screen Beyoncé concertgoers for pedophiles and terrorists earlier this year.

After the 2017 Manchester terrorist attack killed 22 people, South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Alun Michael told the BBC that crowd scanning had become the standard in the UK. The technology was deployed at a Beyoncé concert in Cardiff on May 17th.

The police commissioner said employing cameras to scan crowd faces was ‘absolutely sensible’ for the Cardiff concert because ‘there would be very big numbers of young females attending that concert.’ So how does the technology catch pedophiles and terrorists? Live recognition cameras match faces to police watch lists. CCTV footage is recorded for 31 days to identify potential threats.

Some say the device ‘violates our rights and undermines our liberties.’ But the commissioner says, “There’s been a lot of misunderstanding thinking that images are captured and kept – they’re not, only an image of a person you’re looking for is remembered.”