Saving faces: On protests, biometric surveillance
The article criticizes the deployment of biometric surveillance, such as facial recognition, at political protests in India without clear legislative or judicial oversight. It highlights concerns regarding data privacy, the involvement of private contractors, and the potential chilling effect on democratic participation.
Why it matters
It raises critical questions about the balance between state security measures and the fundamental right to protest in a democracy.
India appears to be normalising the technical ability to subject political gatherings to searchable biometric surveillance without first having settled, through legislation and judicial oversight, the circumstances in which the state may lawfully do so. While the Delhi Police have continued to deny the use of excessive force and manhandling people involved in the Cockroach Janta Party protests , contrary to protestors’ testimonies, facial recognition equipment was present at the protest site while the demonstrations were on. According to its affidavit to the Supreme Court of India , the police deployed a facial recognition system (including Artificial Intelligence-enabled cameras to scan faces in real-time against a database), a mobile surveillance van and a command and control vehicle, smart spectacles for identifying individuals on the move, and drones and videographers; the van and the spectacles have been tied to private contractors.
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