LONDON (AP) — A British court has ruled that a police force's trial of automated facial recognition technology is lawful, dealing a blow to an activist concerned about its implications for privacy.

The court said Wednesday that existing laws adequately cover the trial by the South Wales police force, in what's believed to be the world's first legal case on how a law enforcement agency uses the new technology.

The decision comes amid a broader global debate about rising use of facial recognition technology, powered by new advances in cameras and artificial intelligence to automatically scan faces and match them to "watchlists" of wanted people.

The British court said in its ruling that the technology's deployment by South Wales was in line with British human rights and data privacy legislation.