The Karnataka Government has announced that every single citizen under home quarantine in the state will have to upload their ‘selfies’ on a government app every hour and failing to do so, teams will reach the homes of such defaulters and they will be liable to be shifted to designated quarantine centers. An exception will be made between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. when people usually sleep. The announcement was made by the state medical education minister Dr. K. Sudhakar.

All persons under home quarantine shall send their selfie to government (on a mobile application) every 1 hour. Failing to do so, teams will reach such defaulters & they will be liable to be shifted to quarantine centers made by the government: Dr. K Sudhakar, Karnataka Minister pic.twitter.com/dEvI5iGp10 — ANI (@ANI) March 30, 2020

The people quarantined at their homes will also need to send their GPS coordinates along with their selfies, announced the Karnataka government. “Every selfie sent by home-quarantine persons is seen by a government photo-verification team. So, if wrong photos are sent, defaulters will be shifted to mass quarantine centres,” Sudhakar said in his press release.

The announcement by the Karnataka government comes after numerous people have dodged quarantines at their homes and jeopardized the health of other people. While the move could be seen as a violation of privacy by some, such extraordinary measures have also been taken by Taiwan in order to combat the spread of the pandemic.