VOTER FACIAL RECOGNITION SCORES 80%

The State Election Commission’s (SEC) pilot project on facial recognition at Kompally municipality, during the recent polls, has reportedly yielded an 80 per cent accuracy rate. Eight out of ten voters were successfully validated using the technology at ten polling stations on January 22.

The use of facial technology for voter identification has come under criticism by activists as well as some politicians, including Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi. He recently tweeted that voter privacy was being invaded.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Mr S. Vishnu Prasad, assistant secretary at the SEC, said the app was unable to identify a few voters due to the poor quality photographs in the electoral database. “Some photographs of voters were taken when they were very young. Due to this, the application was unable to validate them,” he said. He suggested voters update their photographs on a periodical basis.

The SEC had originally planned to use the technology during the GHMC elections, scheduled for later this year. When asked about this plan, Mr Prasad said, “The results of the pilot project are promising. We think we can scale it up to be implemented across GHMC. However, this decision can only be taken after discussions with all political parties and stakeholders.”

In the past, activists have questioned if the voter data would be stored post the elections. “The back end support was provided by the Telangana State Technology Services (TSTS). They have already deleted the data,” he said.

Reacting to criticism of invasion of privacy, Mr Prasad said that the data was communicated in a randomised and encrypted format. “The app used by polling officials did not allow for data storage. The transmission too was done on encrypted channels. So there was no risk to voter privacy,” he said.