By Aishwarya Jagani
Privacy advocates are alarmed that authorities in a city in India plan to use artificial intelligence to monitor women’s facial expressions in an effort to stop roadside harassment, arguing the program would raise serious privacy and surveillance issues.
“Use of facial recognition is extremely problematic — especially here, since it is open-ended,” Anushka Jain, of the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), said of the program in Lucknow, about 310 miles southeast of New Delhi.
“The use is continuous and not limited to any one area, time or specific incident,” she told Digital Privacy News. “This means that 24-7 surveillance of women who come under the gaze of these cameras will be done.”
In January, Lucknow Police Commissioner D.K. Thakur said that authorities had identified as many as 200 harassment hotspots often visited by women and where most complaints are reported.
Continue reading “Police in India Under Fire for Using AI to Stop Crimes Against Women”