FB pixel

Face biometrics deployments in Indian schools scrutinized by privacy advocates

But a personal data protection law is being drafted by lawmakers
Categories Biometrics News  |  Facial Recognition  |  Schools
 

cctv-security-systems

Privacy advocates have criticized the deployment of facial recognition camera systems in at least 12 Indian schools, Reuters reports.

The schools under scrutiny are government-funded, and according to digital rights advocates, their use of biometrics is violating children’s privacy rights.

The deployment of the face biometrics systems are the result of a 2019 decision by the Delhi city government to install CCTV cameras in more than 700 public schools, reportedly to improve students’ safety.

However, the biometric technology has been installed without laws clearly regulating its scope, particularly in regard to user data collection.

“CCTV is already a violation of children’s privacy, even though some parents had supported it for the safety of their children,” Anushka Jain, an associate counsel at Internet Freedom Foundation told Reuters.

“But the use of facial recognition technology is an overreach and is completely unjustified,” he added.

According to the privacy expert, the move is even less justified, as face biometric accuracy rates for children are traditionally substantially lower than for adults. In 2019, around the time an Australian agency began researching how to improve face biometrics accuracy for children, NIST’s Patrick Grother said with advances in convolutional neural networks, face biometric technology may soon become effective for matching children over time.

“So in the event of a crime, you could have children being misidentified,” she said.

The worries were echoed by Prasanth Sugathan, legal director at Software Freedom Law Centre, who said facial recognition systems are often deployed without consent, and also present other issues.

“[They] could cause real harm to the children if the data is leaked, not to mention the impact of always-on surveillance of the children,” he explained.

Despite these arguments, however, Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi said in the past that the use of CCTV had resulted in the reduction of truancy in schools.

The Indian government is currently working on the drafting of a personal data protection law to address these kinds of issues.

Article Topics

 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 

Latest Biometrics News

 

AVPA laud findings from age assurance tech trial

The Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA), and several of its members, have welcomed the publication of preliminary findings from the…

 

Sri Lanka to launch govt API policies and guidelines

Sri Lanka’s government, in the wake of its digital economy drive, is gearing up to release application programming interface (API)…

 

Netherlands’ asylum seeker ID cards from Idemia use vertical ICAO format

The Netherlands will introduce new identity documents for asylum seekers Idemia Smart Identity, compliant with the ICAO specification for vertical…

 

Zenoo integrates Trinsic, Sumsub for advanced digital ID onboarding options

Onboarding and compliance orchestration engine provider Zenoo has formed a pair of partnerships to give its customers a broader range…

 

Swiss digital ID backed by major political parties ahead of autumn referendum

Switzerland’s planned national digital identity has received support from a broad parliamentary alliance that includes representatives from almost all the…

 

Lufthansa, BigBear.ai and HID fly the future of digital transformation

The Lufthansa Group app is paving the way for air travel with new features and digital functionalities that interface with…

Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Biometric Market Analysis

Most Viewed This Week

Featured Company

Biometrics Insight, Opinion

Digital ID In-Depth

Biometrics White Papers

Biometrics Events