Security News > 2021 > April > India uses controversial Aadhaar facial biometrics to identify COVID vaccination recipients

India's National Health Authority has commenced a pilot of facial recognition software as a means of identifying people as they queue in the nation's COVID-19 vaccine centres.

The reason for using facial biometrics is simple: fingerprints or eyeball scans require touching equipment and getting close to machinery, both risky activities during the pandemic.

The system uses facial scans captured under India's Aadhaar national ID scheme.

The program will expand across the country once the pilot has between 50,000 and 60,000 facial authentications completed, according to Sharma, who praised Aadhaar because citizens whose faces were scanned in 2011 can now use facial recognition.

While presented as an optional system, critics say that India residents face more and more pressure to use the system, which collects a wealth of data, some of it accessible by non-government entities, without many privacy assurances.

India made Aadhaar mandatory for e-gov services in 2017.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/04/09/india_facial_id_covid_vaccinations/