Interpol

Interpol states that its facial recognition system was launched at the end of 2016 and is populated with facial images received from the majority of its member countries, drawn from Notices and Diffusions that meet quality criteria. Interpol says IDEMIA software encodes a probe image and compares it with stored templates to produce a candidate list, and that its officers manually verify each result as potential candidate, no candidate or inconclusive. Member countries can also send search-only requests through the Biometric Hub, for example for border checks, and those images are not recorded in the database. Interpol says the system has helped identify several thousand individuals. Biometric Update (25 September 2026) reports that an Interpol-coordinated counter-terrorism operation, Operation Shams II, had identified 126 suspects by comparing facial images taken from online content with the system. Interpol's page does not describe an oversight body for the system.