What do you mean by facial recognition, how use of facial recognition technologies wiil benefit in the present day context?

 What do you mean by facial recognition, how use of facial recognition technologies wiil benefit in the present day context? 

Facial recognition refers to technologies, largely based on artificial intelligence (AI), that uses biometric data collected from citizens to identify an individual based on facial patterns. Specifically, there are two types of facial recognition. The first is one-on-one recognition or when an existing database possesses an individual’s facial image which is then corroborated by the individual who provides an image to confirm. The second is one-to-many recognition or when an individual’s image is captured and used to confirm identity through an existing database. The Indian government has relied on facial recognition methods to bolster its law enforcement capabilities, particularly in criminal identification. Soon, plans are afoot to establish a nation-wide Automated Facial Recognition System (AFRS) to streamline and quicken the process of criminal identification. Once operational, this system could extract an image from a video and match it to an image that exists in a related government database. However, the government’s intent to have this system up and running could run up against thorny concerns related to privacy, transparency and security. How the government squares these considerations will end up determining its regulatory approach vis-a-vis AI that drives facial recognition techniques.

In terms of benefits, law enforcement officials trust facial recognition technologies will enhance the state’s ability to detect criminal behaviour and patterns by matching facial images to a vast data repository. Officials insist this tool should assist in crime prevention and detection, finding missing children, ensuring public safety, curbing human trafficking and maintaining law and order. In terms of data, the AFRS is expected to harvest images from multiple sources, including newspapers, police intelligence and closed-circuit television  feeds, plus use existing data from the Crime and Criminal Tracking Networks and Systems portal. To assuage critics fearful of such facial recognition methods, government officials from the National Crime Records Bureau stipulate that images collected and stored in the database will not be used unless ‘the video footage is part of a crime’ or they will not be used arbitrarily. Yet, reassurances have not dealt with the raft of concerns raised by civil society groups on the efficacy and use of facial recognition technologies, particularly the one-to-many facial recognition approach.

whether public safety and crime prevention should rest on the shoulders of mass surveillance. The use of facial recognition could also be in contravention of the Indian Supreme Court’s 2017 Puttaswamy judgment which reaffirmed the right to privacy that also extends to public spaces which effectively bars the unlawful collection of personal data. The lack of a final data protection bill in India gives the Indian government discretion to design and operationalise facial recognition systems under the pretext of national security and law and order. Indeed, the most recent draft of India’s data protection legislation grants exemptions to the government on national security grounds.

use facial recognition technologies to advance state, principally security, interests at the expense of constitutional, legal and ethical considerations.