Spanish company runs EU-banned facial recognition technology in India
Banned at home, European surveillance tech finds markets abroad.
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- Spanish firm Herta Security supplied India with more than 4,000 facial recognition cameras.
- The cameras operate in railway stations, Delhi’s largest prison complex, Ayodhya, and Ahmedabad city control rooms.
- EU law largely bans similar real-time facial recognition in public spaces for law enforcement use.
- Rights groups warn exported surveillance technology can enable privacy abuses, discrimination, wrongful arrests, and repression.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
Spanish firm Herta Security has supplied India with thousands of facial recognition cameras, despite such a deployment being prohibited in the EU.
A joint investigation by the Investigate Europe consortium, India’s Reporters’ Collective, and Tech Policy Press reveals that more than 4,000 Herta cameras are deployed across India.
They are installed in hundreds of railway stations, Delhi’s largest prison complex, a pilgrimage site in Ayodhya, and the city control rooms of Ahmedabad.
The system, created by Barcelona-based Herta Security, matches faces from the live feed with photos from a database, which includes wanted offenders, criminal suspects, and missing people.
If the camera identifies a wanted person, the system alerts authorities, providing them with the exact location where the individual was spotted, according to a Tech Policy Press report.
Despite widespread deployment in India, the use of Herta-type facial recognition systems is strictly limited in the EU.
The bloc’s AI Act, more specifically Article 5, largely prohibits the use of real-time remote biometric identification systems in publicly accessible spaces for law enforcement purposes.
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There are narrow exceptions to targeted searches for victims of certain crimes or missing persons, the prevention of imminent terrorist threats, and the identification of suspects of a closed list of serious crimes, including terrorism, murder, and rape.
Still, the legislation requires consideration of the potential harm to “all persons concerned” and compliance with “necessary and proportionate safeguards.”
Four legal scholars specializing in EU AI and biometrics law told the investigators that two uses of Herta’s system in India – deployment at railway stations and a citywide surveillance program in Ahmedabad – would be illegal if they were to operate within the EU.
In a written response to investigators, Herta confirmed its use of technology in India but said it would “not disclose confidential customer information.”
Human rights concerns
Facial recognition technology has long caused privacy concerns, including due to inherited algorithmic biases and wrongful arrests, over a dozen of which have been reported in the US alone, according to an American Civil Liberties Union analysis.
Moreover, there are concerns that autocratic regimes use the technology to suppress dissent.
It comes as no surprise that the EU, with some of the most robust AI regulations in the world, has passed laws protecting citizens’ fundamental rights and safety in the face of the technology.
However, European companies continue to export surveillance technology to countries where governments are likely to use it to violate international humanitarian or human rights law, according to a recent Human Rights Watch report.
Herta Security, too, has a track record of working outside the EU. For example, its cameras are deployed at stadiums in Belarus and Russia, both of which are run by autocratic governments.
Its surveillance tech is also present in airports in Mexico and Nicaragua, despite both countries having a poor human rights track record.
According to the company’s marketing materials obtained by investigators, the software is used by police forces in the Netherlands, Spain, Colombia, and Indonesia.
Law enforcement praises facial recognition technology, calling it a tool for solving crimes, even though there isn't much publicly available hard data to support these claims.
However, a 2024 study that analyzed data from 268 cities associated the use of facial recognition with lower rates of felony violence and homicide.
According to Tech Policy Press, India started deploying Herta Security’s technology following an infamous rape case in 2012, when a young physiotherapy student was gang-raped for hours after boarding a private bus in Delhi.
The incident and the student’s death following it caused outrage in the country, resulting in increased funds for security measures, including facial recognition technology. However, critics say that the new surveillance system didn’t make women and girls safer.