POLICE could be forced to halt their use of “dystopian” facial recognition technology on Britain’s streets after campaigners won the world’s first legal challenge against it.

In a Court of Appeal ruling today, judges found that South Wales Police had breached privacy rights, data protection laws and equality laws through its use of the surveillance tools.

The force has been at the forefront of using automated facial recognition (AFR) technology, which works by scanning passers-by and comparing their faces with a secret watchlist of suspects, missing people and people of interest.