Ila Kazmi, journalist at IndiaTV shared a video of a few police men sitting inside a van who appears to be monitoring CCTV footage and a series of individuals’ photographs could be seen which might be getting matched through referencing from some databases.
“Police using facial recognition van system in jantarmantar ….I cant confirm who the people are in photos but the van had a camera in both the ends and live footage was recording as seen in the video,” she wrote on X. In a follow up video she stated that the camera installed at the backside of the van is capturing the protestors and facial recognition technology was deployed to identify them. She said it’s a privacy violation.
Similarly, Article14’s reporter Srishti was reporting on the ground, she found herself on the screens inside an another van, which was capturing footage using 360 degree cameras. This van is slightly bigger than what Kazmi reported. We don’t know how many such vehicles were deployed at the protest site for surveillance purposes. Srishti confronted the workers inside the van. She asked why her face was being zoomed in. The worker responded saying that the cameras capture 360-degree angles and said a PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) camera is a motorized camera that can rotate horizontally (pan), tilt vertically, and adjust focal length (zoom).
There is no snooping and surveillance, claimed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta during the July 20’s Delhi HC hearing of a PIL by former JNU students against intrusive policing. “At Jantar Mantar, some or the other protest is going on. Every protest is always recorded. In this protest, as a matter of fact, hundreds of people are seen making videos and reels and making them viral. This is only for the purpose of law and order. There is no snooping. There is no surveillance”, he said. He also called the case as “luxury litigation”. Read rest of MediaNama’s reporting here.
We have written to Delhi police regarding this, asking for confirmation or denial and a few more questions. We will update the copy if we receive any response.
A few public reactions:
“Mass surveillance going on at the protest site. India does not have a comprehensive surveillance law governing biometric or facial recognition surveillance. Instead, surveillance powers are spread across multiple statutes, executive rules, and police powers,” wrote Mishi Choudhary, Founder of SFLC.in,
“What started in Delhi has to end in Delhi. The Nirbhaya incident gave CCTVs a godly image as savior of women, Global capital sold “Modernization of police force” and continues to sell AI/FRT to…
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