Hyderabad: Hyderabad is on the verge of being a total surveillance city.
Extensive supervision places human rights in risk, Amnesty International says in a statement, brings a sharp focus on the CCTV camera network and Telangana police recognition technology (FRT).
This also raises serious security concerns over the upcoming command control center (CCC) in Banjara Hills.
In a statement about ‘Automatic Harassment in Hyderabad’ which was released on Tuesday, the International NGO Amnesty said that in recent years, Telangana has become a test site to increase the use of “harmful facial recognition technology for civilians”.
As part of the ‘scanning ban’ campaign against FRT, Amnesty observed that broad hyderabad supervision places human rights at risk.
“Hyderabad is on the verge of being a total surveillance city.” “It is almost impossible to walk on the road without risking the exposure to face recognition,” said Amnesty International International researcher Matt Mahmoudi.
“Besides CCTV, we are worried that law enforcement practices (personnel) use tablets to stop, search and photograph civilians without fees can be used for facial recognition.” He added.
Amnesty, the Internet Freedom Foundation and Article 19, who worked on freedom of expression and information, the location of the Outdoor CCTV infrastructure mapped in two fields in Hyderabad.
Sampling was carried out in Kalapatthar and Kishanbagh with the help of local volunteers.
“Based on geospatial analysis, it is estimated that in this neighborhood 530,864 (53.7%) square meters and 513,683 (62.7%) sqm, respectively, covered by CCTV cameras.” The Amnesti study said.
Amnesty also made serious observations at the command control center, nicknamed the twin police tower with real-time FRT and supervision infrastructure.
“Command control centers are reported to support data processing from up to 600,000 cameras at once, with the possibility of increasing this scope far further throughout the region.
This camera can be used in combination with the existing Hyderabad police face recognition software to track individuals,” said Amnesty .
“Face recognition technology can track who you are, where you go, what you know, and who you know.
This threatens human rights, including the right to privacy, and places some of the most vulnerable in risky society.
CCC’s development has Cold consequences for the right to freedom of expression and assembly.
“said Quinn McKew, Executive Director in Article 19.” There are currently no laws that apply to protecting the privacy of citizens – Face recognition is a dangerous and invasive technology and is very important that authority India immediately stopped the use of this dangerous technology, “said Anushka Jain from the Advice Internet Freedom Foundation for Surveillance & Transparency Association.
Amnesty International said that the recordings of dozens of incidents distributed in social media between November 2019 and July 2021 showed police Hyderabad asked civilians to remove their masks and photographed them on the streets.
Other cases have shown police randomly demanding the face and fingerprints rang from civilians.
“Under the identification of detainees, 1920, was not permitted to take photos of the police, unless arrested or convicted of crime, and there was no distribution of these photos with other law enforcement agencies,” he said.
In addition, a study by the Internet Freedom Foundation found that Telangana had the highest number of FRT projects in India.
In early January 2021, a report on oversight cities by Surveshark had occupied the second Hyderabad in the world with 480 CCTV cameras per square kilometer.
Chennai, London, Delhi and several cities in China are named in it.
Another report in July 2020 with a comparison, the consumer portal, which analyzed public CCTV cameras in the world’s most dense cities in the world, has ranked 16th in Hyderabad 16 among the top 20 cities in the world, which includes London and several cities in China.