Plan for facial recognition tech in schools riles rights groups

School Education department’s proposal to introduce facial recognition based attendance raises questions of privacy of children

Teachers and students of the Telangana’s government schools will likely have to mark their attendance on an app that uses facial recognition technology (FRT), even as groups emphasising the right to privacy continue to raise concerns about the use of this technology.

“There is need for extra sensitivity when CCTVs and FRT are being used for children,” said Anushka Jain of Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), adding, “We do not count the consent of a child in such cases in law. When any such action is taken, parents must be informed. It is a murky area.”  Ms. Jain underscored that the consequences of FR technology are different in the case of children as compared to adults. Consent in connection with such technologies too works differently.

The Project Panoptic (PP), a community-run initiative of the IFF, flagged the issue on Saturday. PP also flagged a similar tender that was issued by the Indian Telephone Industries Limited. The PP, that has been at the forefront of raising privacy and data protection concerns, described the move as an “assault” on the right to privacy in Telangana.

A tender document floated recently shows that the School Education department intends to use a facial recognition solution (FRS) attendance application. The total number of users or staff that are a part of this system is pegged at two lakh, scalable by up to four times this number.

Teachers or other staff would have to take a selfie to mark their attendance. Depending on the situation, a department-designated individual too can take the picture. The FRS is required to use facial points comparison to identify the member of staff. Data protection guidelines must be adhered to, the tender document specifies.

While it is unclear whether the School Education department would embark on marking the attendance of students using FR technology, tender documents suggest that provisions have been made in the ‘Functional Requirements’ section so as to mark class attendance in a group of about 20 each, meaning be capable of giving a headcount as well.

Documents also show that the app is required to be able to take take photos of the class and identify students who are absent, present their images, and generate a list of absent students.