Privacy concerns resurface as India launches facial recognition systems in two airports

The installment of facial recognition technology in two airports (Hyderabad and Bengaluru) in India is creating concerns over privacy. The software in question identifies passengers by their face, in an effort to eliminate the need for paper boarding passes, passports and other forms of identification. According to Vidushi Marda, a lawyer and advisor at human rights group Article 19, “entities that deploy facial recognition essentially have carte blanche to do whatever they want with your most intimate data […] It is basically surveillance architecture. Facial recognition has no redeeming qualities from a privacy and autonomy lens- it is also famously inaccurate and completely unreliable.”