Thread by @internetfreedom

THREAD: National Health Authority chief Dr. R.S. Sharma said that Facial Recognition will be used with Aadhaar to authenticate identities of people seeking vaccines. But this inaccurate tech can lead to potentially life threatening exclusion from access to vaccines in India.
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With @no2uid and a team of volunteers, we released a joint statement opposing the initiative. It has been endorsed by 16 orgs+505 individuals. We've sent it with a covering letter to Dr. Ram Sewak Sharma and the National Health Authority. Read ahead.
internetfreedom.in/sign-on-and-su…
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The government is currently using biometric fingerprint/iris scan for identity authentication at vaccination centres. They could soon be replaced with Facial Recognition which it believes will help avoid infections. The pilot program has already been initiated in Jharkhand.
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In the past linking welfare schemes to Aadhaar caused mass exclusion (eg. starvation deaths!) Conditioning access to healthcare on untested facial recognition also risks exclusion. FRT is not accurate - no system has been found to have a 100% success rate.
@no2uid
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In the absence of national standards to regulate this tech, the possibility of adopting faulty systems increases. Error-prone systems lead to false negatives, as the system will not be able to correctly identify individuals, and arbitrarily deprive them of access to vaccines.
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The use of this tech violates our fundamental right to privacy. Any infringements of this right must be necessary, proportionate, and subject to strict oversight. The proposal to introduce facial recognition for vaccine delivery meets none of these standards.
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Facial Recognition, when deployed for a specific purpose, can be extended to other purposes. This is called function creep. E.g. in 2019, Delhi Police used an FRT Software to identify protestors. It was initially obtained to reunite missing children with their families.
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We urge consideration and reflection as India stands at a critical juncture in its fight against COVID-19. We must follow the path of constitutionalism through respect for rights and advance social justice, not restrict it by risky, experimental, harmful tech. Our demands.
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