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KTR calls for transparency in use of facial technology by govt

Every step the government took to use facial recognition needed to be shared with the public before it was used, KTR said

Hyderabad: One of the biggest challenges in using technologies such as facial recognition, coupled with use of artificial intelligence, is gaining confidence of citizens that the government uses such data in an unbiased manner, and that citizens are not surveilled unless they have been notified, according to information technology minister K.T. Rama Rao.

Rama Rao said the only way to be able to achieve this would be to first clearly identify the regulatory powers that each government organisation would require. “These powers must be given to them in a parliamentary and a transparent method,” he said.

The minister was speaking at a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on ‘AI on the Street: Managing Trust in the Public Square’.

Rama Rao made it clear that the entire process must be transparent, and every step the government took to use facial recognition needed to be shared with the public before it was used. “The government understands the advantages that facial recognition provides in regulation and policing. The confidence that the public has in this system needs to be bolstered by optional systems.”

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