
National Automated Facial Recognition System
Sep 07, 2021
National Automated Facial Recognition System
Q Why is it in News ?
A Recently the Joint Committee examining the Personal Data Protection Bill (2019) was granted a fifth extension by Parliament. While the Government has been simultaneously exploring the potential of facial recognition technology.
Q What is need of Automatic Facial Recognition in India ?
A
- To empower the Indian police with information technology, India approved implementation of the National Automated Facial Recognition System (NAFRS).
- On its implementation, it will function as a national-level search platform that will use facial recognition technology.
- It will help to facilitate investigation of crime or for identifying a person of interest regardless of face mask, makeup, plastic surgery, beard or hair extension.
Q What are some Issues with Automatic Facial Recognition technology ?
A
- Intrusive in nature: The technology is absolutely intrusive, for the purposes of ‘verification’ or ‘identification’, the system compares the faceprint generated with a large existing database of faceprints typically available to law enforcement agencies.
- Accuracy and bias: Though the accuracy of facial recognition has improved over the years due to modern machine-learning algorithms, the risk of error and bias still exists.
- With the element of error and bias, facial recognition can result in profiling of some overrepresented groups (such as Dalits and minorities) in the criminal justice system.
- Privacy: As NAFRS will collect, process, and store sensitive private information: facial biometrics for long periods; if not permanently it will impact the right to privacy.
- Accordingly, it is crucial to examine whether its implementation is arbitrary and thus unconstitutional, i.e., is it ‘legitimate’, ‘proportionate to its need’ and ‘least restrictive’?
- The Supreme Court, in the K.S. Puttaswamy judgment provided a three-fold requirement to safeguard against any arbitrary state action. Unfortunately, NAFRS fails each one of these tests.
- Any encroachment on the right to privacy requires the existence of ‘law’ (to satisfy legality of action); there must exist a ‘need’, in terms of a ‘legitimate state interest’; and, the measure adopted must be ‘proportionate’ and it should be ‘least intrusive.’
- Lack of law: It does not stem from any statutory enactment (such as the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill 2018 proposed to identify offenders or an executive order of the Central Government.
- Rather, it was merely approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in 2009.
- Fails proportionality test: Even if we assume that there exists a need for NAFRS to tackle modern day crimes, this measure is grossly disproportionate.
- For NAFRS to achieve the objective of ‘crime prevention’ or ‘identification’ will require the system to track people on a mass scale avoiding a CCTV in a public place is difficult resulting in everyone becoming a subject of surveillance a disproportionate measure.
- Impact on civil liberties: As anonymity is key to functioning of a liberal democracy, unregulated use of facial recognition technology will dis-incentivise independent journalism or the right to assemble peaceably without arms, or any other form of civic society activism.
- Due to its adverse impact on civil liberties, some countries have been cautious with the use of facial recognition technology.
- In the United States, the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act of 2020 was introduced in the Senate to prohibit biometric surveillance without statutory authorisation.
- Similarly, privacy watchdogs in the European Union have called for a ban on facial recognition.
Q What can be Way forward ?
A
- Statutory basis: NAFRS should have statutory authorisation, and guidelines for deployment.
- Data protection law: In the interest of civil liberties it is important to impose a moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology till we enact a strong and meaningful data protection law.
- In sum, even if facial recognition technology is needed to tackle modern-day criminality in India, without accountability and oversight, facial recognition technology has strong potential for misuse and abuse