NEW DELHI - It is a claim to fame that has proved controversial.
On Aug 26, Delhi's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted to say that he felt proud that Delhi has the highest number of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras per square mile, beating cities such as Shanghai, New York and London.
He was quoting a report from Forbes India that cited data from Comparitech, a British website that focuses on improving cyber security and online privacy. According to data from the website, Delhi has 1,826.58 CCTV cameras per square mile, the highest among the top 150 cities analysed by Comparitech.
London was second with 1,138.48 such systems and Chennai took third place with 609.92. Besides Singapore which ranks eighth, all others in the top 10 are cities in China.
"My compliments to our officers and engineers who worked in mission mode n (sic) achieved it in such a short time," tweeted Mr Kejriwal, who has defended the use of CCTV cameras to improve public safety in Delhi.
This celebration has been greeted with criticism by digital rights activists who argue that surveillance does not necessarily correspond to safety and have questioned the widespread use of these CCTV systems.
"CCTV deployment is without any legal basis or safeguards... This is encouraging private, warrantless surveillance across Delhi," tweeted the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), a Delhi-based Indian digital liberties organisation.
A one-page standard operating procedure issued by the government in 2018 specifies footage from its cameras can be accessed by neighbourhood resident welfare and market associations, the Public Works Department and local police.
There is no mention of any data protection measure. The Delhi government later stated that resident welfare and market associations can access footage after securing clearance from the locally elected mem ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
