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National Automated Facial Recognition System
Why in news?
- India has approved implementation of the National Automated Facial Recognition System (NAFRS).
- It will act as a national-level search platform that will use facial recognition technology to facilitate investigation of crime or for identifying a person of interest.
- It can fulfil this task regardless of face mask, makeup, plastic surgery, beard or hair extension.
- Recently, several concerns have been raised regarding the adequate safeguards that are provided in the National Automated Facial Recognition System.
- On the other hand Parliament granted a fifth extension to the Joint Committee examining the Personal Data Protection Bill (2019).
National Automated Facial Recognition System:
- Face based identification: It is a biometric technology that identifies and distinguishes a person based on distinctive features of their face. It reconstructs the faceprint by capturing the face & its features through a camera and using algorithms.
- Database of faceprints: To verify or identify a faceprint, the system compares it with a large database of faceprints.
Other initiatives:
- Telangana police: A own facial recognition system was introduced by Telangana police in August 2018.
- DigiYatra: The Ministry of Civil Aviation's "DigiYatra" program is using the facial recognition technology at the Hyderabad airport as a trial.
- CCTNS: Automated facial recognition is used in NCRB's Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS)
Potential benefits:
- Identification: It will help identify criminals and missing persons as well as unidentified dead bodies.
- Prevent crime: Fraudsters cannot create fake citizen IDs, terrorists cannot infiltrate systems, illegal immigrants cannot travel.
- Efficiency: The process is easier and more automatic, and it does not require a lot of human effort.
- Investigation of crime: It will facilitate better investigation of crime and thus reduce burden on police and judicial system. It will help police rely less on confessions and eliminate need for torture.
- Deterrence: It will help to create deterrence in the minds of criminals as they cannot hide their 'face'.
Challenges/Issue:
- Not Infallible:
- Facial recognition is not fool-proof, and there have been instances of misidentification.
- As per research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, facial recognition algorithms consistently misidentify faces.
- Misidentifying someone can lead to wrongful convictions and may impinge on a core democratic right to vote.
- Privacy concerns:
- AFRS’s indiscriminate and large-scale recording, storing and analyzing of images is intrusive and undermine privacy.
- The people under scanner can no longer do anything in public without the state knowing about it.
- This is a violation of the right to privacy, which is a fundamental right as envisaged in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India (2017).
- S. Puttaswamy judgment provided a three-fold requirement to safeguard against any arbitrary state action - is it ‘legitimate’, ‘proportionate to its need’ and ‘least restrictive’?
- There is no statute for the implementation of NAFRS.
- Even if it is argued that it is needed it disproportionately puts everyone under the radar.
- It will affect the civil liberties of people that are essential for functioning of a democracy.
Fear of Surveillance:
- Fear of Surveillance:
- Facial recognition technology takes monitoring to new levels. It can be very damaging to our society if abused for things like constant surveillance of the public.
- China’s reported use of facial recognition technologies for surveillance in Xinjiang is an example.
- Impact on Democratic Political Culture:
- Blanket surveillance can deter individuals from attending public events.
- It can stifle participation in political protests and campaigns for change and can discourage dissent.
- This goes against the right to freedom of assembly, association and expression.
- It will undermine independence of journalism and civil society activism.
- The already vulnerable groups can be targeted:
- The technology can be deployed selectively, for example, to identify migrants and refugees.
- The use of handheld mobile devices with a facial recognition app by police forces raises the spectre of enhanced racial profiling.
- As per the multiple studies, accuracy rates of facial recognition algorithms are particularly low in the case of minorities, women and children.
- With the element of error and bias, it can lead to profiling of some overrepresented groups (such as Dalits and minorities) in the criminal justice system.
- Lack of safeguards: India currently does not have a data protection law to guard against potential abuse.
- International precedents: In US, the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act of 2020 was introduced in the Senate to prohibit biometric surveillance without statutory authorisation. In EU too several watchdogs have called for banning it.
Conclusion:
- Safeguards: AFRS's deployment for security and law enforcement should come with strong safeguards against misuse. A statute regarding its modalities must be passed after public consultation and parliamentary debate. Accountability and oversight mechanisms must be put in place before implementing it.
- Surveillance should be restricted to the pursuit of serious crime instead of enabling the unjustified interference into our liberty and rights.
- Strict Regulation instead of banning it:
- Instead of simply banning an entire category of technologies with so many possible applications, policymakers should employ precision regulation.
- Without proper regulation of these systems, we risk creating a police state.
- Debate and Scrutiny: There is a desperate need for a more prominent conversation on its impact on our rights and civil liberties.
Source: the Hindu and Indian Express