We as a country are on an irreversible downward spiral into autocracy and are now entering the 'Deep State' territory. As part of the Goa Intelligent City Management System as many as 328 CCTV cameras have been installed of which 10 have facial recognition technology embedded. Advanced countries like Belgium , Luxembourg and many states in the US have banned the use of facial recognition as it is open to abuse by the government. Facial recognition which is a subset of biometric privacy laws worldwide is in contravention of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights
(akin to the Geneva Convention for prisoners) which ensures everyone's right to a private and family life. Facial recognition (FR), which is a common trope in dystopian novels is slowly creeping into everyday life in India, it is deployed at airports to profile travellers and law enforcement agencies to identify suspects, unfettered by privacy laws that should regulate the use of sensitive data. The sarkar may cry hoarse that FR tech could help in crime fighting but this is just another means to keep an eye on citizens without their knowledge, especially the ones whose views are not in consonance with the powers that be. The recent case of Pegasus, a military grade spyware of Israeli origin used by the government to snoop on political opponents and brazen denial of the same in the Apex Court by the Solicitor General of India when questioned is a prime example of how the state abuses its powers. Deployment of facial recognition technology which does not even require complex installation on devices unlike spyware is yet another nefarious step by the 'Deep State' to turn India into a sheep state, ie. a 100% surveilled society where everyone obeys the ruler's diktats. We are actually entering George Orwell's 1984.
