India Is Planning To Adopt A China-Style Facial Recognition Program

India looking to set up one of the worldโ€™s largest facial recognition system for police

Indiaย is planning to emulate China by setting up one of the worldโ€™s largestย facial recognitionย systems for surveillance companies in a bid to improve policing throughout the country, reports Bloomberg.

The government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will open the bidding next month to build a system to centralize facial recognition data captured through surveillance cameras across India. The proposed system would link up with government databases containing information such as passports details to fingerprints of millions of citizens to help Indiaโ€™s understaffed police forces to catch criminals, find missing individuals and dead bodies, and carry out other important tasks.

According to the government, there is only one officer for every 724 citizens, which is way below global standards. The facial recognition market in India is expected to increase six-fold and reach $4.3 billion by 2024, nearly on par with China, according to TechSci Research.

Whileย the new system is designed to help improve the effectiveness of the worldโ€™s most undermanned police staff, the move has been objected by many Indian privacy advocates. They are suspicious about the governmentโ€™s ability and willingness to ensure data privacy of its citizens, as there are no data privacy laws in place in the country.

โ€œWeโ€™re the only functional democracy which will set up such as system without any data protection or privacy laws,โ€ said Apar Gupta, a Delhi-based lawyer and executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation. โ€œItโ€™s like a gold rush for companies seeking large unprotected databases.โ€

Besides the fear of the new system leading to a Chinese-style Orwellian state, privacy advocates also believe that it would lead to rise in discrimination against the countryโ€™s minority groups and lower caste members.

Not much information is currently available regarding companies that may bid on the facial-recognition system. The government has yet to officially respond to the new system.

Kavita Iyer
Kavita Iyerhttps://www.techworm.net
An individual, optimist, homemaker, foodie, a die hard cricket fan and most importantly one who believes in Being Human!!!
spot_img

Read More

Suggested Post