Facial Recognition Technology

 There are currently 16 different facial recognition tracking system FRT in active utilization across India for surveillance, security, or authentication of identity.

 Another 17 are in possess of utilization for various government departments.

There are no specific guidelines to regulate this potential invasive technology.

In 2018, Delhi police became first law enforcement agency to use this in country. Police got permission to use the FRS by an order of the Delhi High Court for tracking missing children.

AFRS, automatic facial recognition system is an ambitious pan India project under the Home Ministry which will be used by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and various States’ law enforcement departments. The basis of the AFRS is a Cabinet note of 2009.

Issue:

  • legal experts say, it poses a huge threat to the fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of speech and expression because it does not satisfy the threshold the Supreme Court had set in its landmark privacy judgment in the ‘Justice K.S. Puttaswamy Vs Union of India’ case. 
  • This might lead to an overpolicing problem 
  • Problems where certain minorities are targeted without any legal backing or any oversight as to what is happening.
  • Another problem that may arise is of mass surveillance, wherein the police are using the FRT system during protest.
  • Companies like IBM, Microsoft have decided not to sell these technologies to law enforcement at all. Even Amazon has imposed a moratorium. Facial recognition technology has not only been invasive,  inaccurate and unregulated but has also been unapologetically weaponised by law enforcement against people of color.

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