EU experts say applying Herta’s real-time facial recognition in India would be illegal under EU law if conducted in Europe, due to the EU AI Act’s ban on public-space real-time biometric identification, with exceptions; meanwhile, India lacks comprehensive data protection safeguards for such deployments.

Critics, including Italian MEP Brando Benifei, argue a double standard where the EU restricts similar technologies at home but funds their development and export abroad, urging that unsafe systems not be exported.

Herta maintains its products align with European data-protection principles and notes it cannot control how authorities implement technology in different environments, pointing to its history marketing tools for crowd surveillance and policing in various countries.

Investigate Europe reports that about 4,000 cameras across India use Herta’s technology, with substantial rollout tied to the Nirbhaya Fund established after the 2012 Delhi assault to improve women’s safety.

Public responses among commuters show mixed awareness of surveillance, weighing safety benefits against privacy concerns, with questions about the effectiveness of surveillance in improving women’s safety given home violence risks.

Herta Security’s facial recognition software is deployed across India, including eastern railway stations, Delhi prisons, and the Ram Mandir temple in Ayodhya, with local partners claiming extensive deployment and watchlists of about one million subjects.

The Indian deployments cover Railways’ Eastern Region (roughly 540 systems at 143 stations, with plans to reach 1,500 cameras), Delhi prisons, the Ram Mandir site, and Ahmedabad’s Safe City program, with nondisclosed watchlists and identification accuracy raising misidentification concerns.

A Spanish company, Herta, supplies real-time face matching against watchlists at Indian facilities such as Howrah, with expansions noted across eastern India.

The piece underscores ongoing debates on governance, transparency, and accountability for surveillance in multinational supply chains and cross-border research funding, calling for clearer legal and ethical frameworks.

Civil society and legal scholars say Nirbhaya Fund allocations have disproportionately supported surveillance and policing rather than direct victim assistance, questioning the tangible safety benefits for women.

Public reaction in India remains mixed, with some commuters backing safety gains while rights groups argue the Fund’s surveillance focus may not translate into real-world safety improvements.

EU-funded support for Herta includes at least €3 million over five years, including a €2.36 million FUTURE project (2022–2024) on crowd behavior analysis and suspect/terrorist identification, aligning with capabilities later deployed in India despite EU restrictions.