Launching a campaign against violation of human rights through the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) by Telangana police, Amnesty International has cautioned that Hyderabad is “on the brink of becoming a total surveillance city.”
(Photo: The News Minute)
Launching a campaign against violation of human rights through the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) by Telangana police, Amnesty International has cautioned that Hyderabad is “on the brink of becoming a total surveillance city.”
Hyderabad is the second city in the world where the campaign has been launched, after the previous leg of research into surveillance in New York City. Conducting research in two neighbourhoods of Hyderabad along with the Internet Freedom Foundation and Article 19, Amnesty International found on mapping visible outdoor CCTV infrastructure that the Kala Pathar and Kishan Bagh localities had CCTV coverage in about 53.7% and 62.7% of their entire area.
Many instances of controversial and dangerous policing practices have been regularly reported in Hyderabad, where police collect fingerprints and photographs of people randomly, as part of Operation Chabutra. More recently, Hyderabad police were found randomly stopping people on the street and looking into their WhatsApp chats as part of their searches to find drug peddlers.
(Published in arrangement with The News Minute)
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