Telangana Government misused voter photos for facial recognition system
An independent researcher filed a complaint with India's Election Commission alleging that the Telangana government misused electoral roll photographs shared during an Aadhaar-Voter ID linking exercise to build a facial recognition system. The system, initially deployed to verify pensioners, reportedly expanded to other government departments including transport and education.
What happened
Independent researcher Srinivas Kodali filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India and Telangana's Chief Electoral Officer stating that electoral roll photographs shared by the Election Commission were misused by the Government of Telangana to build a facial recognition system called Real Time Digital Authentication of Identity (RTDAI).
The RTDAI system was first deployed to verify pensioners in Telangana and later expanded to other uses including a pilot in the electoral context for voter identification at polling stations during municipal elections. According to Kodali, the system has become a general-purpose tool used by Telangana's Department of Transport, Department of Education and other government departments.
Kodali stated that the data sharing occurred during an Aadhaar-Voter ID linking exercise between the Election Commission and Telangana government. He provided documents obtained through Right to Information requests as evidence that the Government of Telangana used photographs from Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) to build the facial recognition system.
Reported impact
Voters' electoral roll photographs and demographic details were used without apparent consent to train an AI/ML/deep learning-based facial recognition system that expanded far beyond its initial pensioner verification purpose.
Index analysis
The incident represents misuse of government voter data for purposes beyond electoral administration. Live photographs of voters were matched against electoral roll photographs in a facial recognition system that became a general-purpose tool applied across multiple government departments.
Governance controls
The Election Commission of India received a complaint detailing the misuse and was provided evidence through Right to Information documents. The complaint raised concerns about data sharing practices during the Aadhaar-Voter ID linking exercise.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.