In India’s surveillance hotspot, facial recognition taken to court

Indians crowding a Sunday market are seen through a rolled up mattress for sale in Jammu, India. Alongside Chinese cities, Hyderabad and Delhi also have some of the world’s highest concentrations of CCTV cameras, according to website Comparitech. — AP

It was lockdown in the Indian city of Hyderabad when activist S.Q. Masood was stopped on the street by police who asked him to remove his facial mask and then took his picture, giving no reason and ignoring his objections.

Worried about how the photographs would be used, Masood sent a legal notice to the city’s police chief. But after receiving no response, he filed suit last month over Telangana state’s use of facial recognition systems – the first such case in India.