Indian State Deploys Biometric Wearable to Track Government Workers in Real Time

(by Jim Nash | Biometric Update) – As if inviting people to revolt against biometric devices in the workplace, an Indian state reportedly will fit smart watches on government officials to track work attendance and real-time location.

According to India.com, the government of Haryana has decreed that “all government officials” will wear the devices. A previous biometric system designed to keep attendance failed, the publisher reports, when employees manipulated them.

There is a problem with people falsifying their attendance using fake fingerprints to identify themselves.

At least three years ago, Indian governmental agencies began deploying biometrics to surveil employees. In 2018, facial recognition was rolled out to take attendance and record the “mood of the workforce,” according to the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law Student Research Review.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security requested proposals for a wrist-wearable biometric device that would continuously monitor the health and anxiety of Customs and Border Protection employees.

There is no mention in the request of location tracking or attendance-taking, though, given the stressful nature of their jobs, rising and falling anxiety identifiers could work in that regard (tongue firmly in cheek).