Tl;dr
On 19 March 2020, we shared a letter with the Ministries of Home Affairs and Law and Justice requesting for a halt on ongoing use of facial recognition systems by both the central government and state governments. This is a response to recent statements by the Union Home Minister in the Indian Parliament of the use of such technologies in the investigations on the Delhi riots. IFF’s position on this front is informed by our own institutional work of mapping the deployment of facial recognition systems in India. In the letter, we also propose that the government impose a three year moratorium on this technology. In addition we propose the Government undertake a public consultation with various stakeholders in order to ensure that future uses of such nascent technologies remain fair, transparent and accountable.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://internetfreedom.in/we-have-written-to-the-government-seeking-a-3-year-moratorium-on-government-use-of-facial-recognition-technology-in-india-projectpanoptic/