EU-Funded Herta Security Runs Banned Facial Recognition on 4,000 Indian Cameras
Herta Security, a facial recognition company that has received EU funding, is reported to be operating its technology across approximately 4,000 cameras in India, where such surveillance deployments exist in a largely unregulated environment. The case draws attention to a gap between the EU's own restrictions on certain uses of facial recognition and the overseas activities of companies it financially supports.
Why this matters: The EU has spent years positioning itself as the global standard-setter for responsible AI. It bans real-time public facial recognition at home for good reasons. Funding a company that then runs exactly that kind of system abroad, at scale, on thousands of cameras, is not a technicality. It is a direct contradiction. The people being scanned in India did not consent to EU tech policy decisions. And European taxpayers did not fund this to export surveillance. Someone needs to explain how this passed any oversight check at all.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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