{"id":526,"date":"2020-12-18T18:07:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T18:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/?p=526"},"modified":"2020-12-19T05:44:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T05:44:08","slug":"privacy-laws-and-consent-while-using-an-image-of-random-people-clicked-on-the-street-for-a-facial-recognition-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/privacy-laws-and-consent-while-using-an-image-of-random-people-clicked-on-the-street-for-a-facial-recognition-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Privacy Laws & Consent while using Image of Random People Clicked on Street for Facial Recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Varun Vikas Srivastav
Amity Law School, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Privacy laws are the kind of laws that do not fall within the rubric of Intellectual Property laws. There are situations where they both come up in the same situation. For instance, in the areas of laws where different jurisdictions address the lawful ideas differently. Personality rights are considered to be the umbrella term for the rights of publicity and privacy[1]<\/sup><\/a>. In some situations, the Right of publicity is known to operate similarly as a trademark i.e. It is the right to keep one\u2019s image from being exploited commercially without taking any permission or compensation from an agreement[2]<\/sup><\/a>. If we talk about privacy rights, then it is known to be a huge and debated field of law and can sometimes be referred to as the right to be left alone, but generally, they operate non-commercially[3]<\/sup><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facial Recognition Programs a Threat to Privacy:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facial recognition refers to when the face mapping techniques are used to identify the individuals’ facial features and then compare them with the available databanks. This Technology is widely prevalent in both the private and the public sectors used by the governments of various countries for the surveillance and enforcement of the law[4]<\/sup><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In India, when the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 was passed there was a large amount of protest taking place across India. At that time the facial recognition technology was used in the streets amidst the protest so that the protestors could be identified easily and could be arrested. These facial recognition systems are even widely used in Indian airports[5]<\/sup><\/a>. This technology will even facilitate the identification of the criminals, the unidentified dead bodies, and even help in finding the children who have gone missing. Thus, it will not violate the rights of the citizens[6]<\/sup><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The various human right activist of India is opposing the use of these technologies because these are violating the right to privacy which is being guaranteed by the constitution of India under Article 21.[7]<\/sup><\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legal challenges faced by facial recognition technology:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Case of Justice KS Puttaswamy vs, the Union of India[8]<\/sup><\/u><\/strong><\/sup><\/u><\/strong><\/a> the supreme court of India had held that the right to privacy is guaranteed under Article 21 of the Indian constitution. It even stated that it is necessary to take the consent of the person before collecting the data[9]<\/sup><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In India, there are no data protection laws framed so far which can define the scope of this technology. But this technology is still utilized blatantly by the Indian government for the collection of private data through the process of multiple state surveillance on the streets. This practice of the Indian government is violating various domestic and international laws. The laws violated are article 17 of the international covenant for civil and political rights and article 12 of the universal declaration of human rights[10]<\/sup><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Automated Facial Recognition Systems (AFRS) are implemented on the streets which are in turn aggravating the privacy norms as these technologies are not taking consent from the people. The facial recognition software only works if there is a database of the images and videos existing so that the algorithms can identify and detect the faces of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are reports which clearly express that the facial recognition tools use a plethora of images which are taken by the internet without taking any consent from the person. Thus, we can say that there is a violation of the law[11]<\/sup><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 and its Impact:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, the Government of India had introduced the Personal Data Protection Bill. The Automated Facial Recognition Systems (AFRS) were also made legal by the lower house of the parliament[12]<\/sup><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This New Bill provided the Government with Three Exceptions which are as follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n