SHILLONG, Aug 13: A month ago, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma had launched a mobile app which uses facial recognition technology to verify pensioners in an exemplary fashion, but it has now raised legal concerns from select members of the civil society.
In a blog post, Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), a digital liberties organisation, said that it had written to the state government, advocating against the use of the technology to verify pensioners.
In this regard, Additional Chief Secretary, in-charge of Finance, Rebecca V Suchiang, has been intimated through a letter about the legal and technical concerns arising out of the use of the app along with a request that the Meghalaya government reconsiders the use of the app.
The letter noted that the use of facial recognition involves collecting, processing and storing biometric information which constitutes sensitive personal information. It may be recalled that the Puttaswamy judgement of the Supreme Court of India upheld the Right to Privacy under Article 21.
Citing the Supreme Court ruling, the letter said that the principles upheld by the apex court must be complied with by the authorities even if the collection of data is voluntary.
Noting that the Meghalaya Government’s app does not comply with any of the above-mentioned principles and was rolled out without any law, the letter states that the state government was not empowered to process data of citizens.
The letter states that citizens of Meghalaya would have no way to seek action against authorities in case their private data is misused.
In addition to legal concerns, the letter also raises concerns of inaccuracy of facial recognition technology.
Reports referred to in the letter state that the error rate of facial recognition among homogenous groups was incredibly high, causing potential issues for the efficiency of the app in the state.
