We have shared a representation with the NCRB and the Hon’ble Minister of Home Affairs Mr Amit Shah highlighting the legal and constitutional issues with their National Automated Facial Recognition System (AFRS) project.
IFF filed RTI requests with the Telangana State Election Commission and Telangana State Technology Services pursuant to the use of Facial Recognition Technology for voter verification in the urban local body elections in Kompally in January, 2020.
IFF filed an RTI with the Chandigarh Police regarding their use of CCTVs in the city of Chandigarh and received a total of 5 responses from different departments. We have summarized these responses and also listed the immediate concerns which should be addressed by the Chandigarh Police.
We trace the international debate on use of facial recognition technology and recommend imposing a 3 year moratorium in India.
While the obvious problem with introduction of facial recognition in India is that a faulty system with a high error rate may be implemented, the implementation of an accurate FRT system also raises serious privacy concerns.