Privacy concerns raised as govt moves to get facial recognition system: Report

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The process of installing an automated facial recognition system (AFRS) to help match digital images photos and videos with an existing database has been initiated by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), reports the Times of India. The move has, however, raised some privacy concerns.

The AFRS offers a well-defined system for identifying criminals, missing children and persons and unidentified bodies. It will also have a database containing photographs of criminals, which will aid the police in matching suspects with criminals on their hotlist.

The report noted that, contrary to the NCRB’s claims that the system would help improve detection of criminals, cyber experts feel that the government's plan to roll-out the AFRS system in absence of a robust data protection law, raises concerns of data privacy.

Privacy and transparency activists have also raised concerns of the data being used for purposes other than criminal investigation, given the absence of the necessary legal framework to regulate the same.

Questions about how many agencies would have access to such a database and the proposed safeguards in this direction are also a talking point.

The NCRB’s website has the request for proposal (RFP), which states that the AFRS solution provider would be selected through bids which must be submitted by August 16, with the bidding to take place on August 19.