The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/pentagon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pentagon</a> worked closely with experts on facial recognition technology that could be used to identify people on footage captured from street cameras or drones.
New information about the government’s research was revealed in a trove of thousands of documents released as part of an open records lawsuit filed by the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aclu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Civil Liberties Union</a> (ACLU) against the FBI, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/07/facial-recognition-fbi-dod-research-aclu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Post</a>. The facial recognition technology sought would significantly boost the government’s surveillance capabilities.
The program was underwritten by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA), part of the U.S. Intelligence Community. An IARPA program manager described the goal of the project in 2019 as to “dramatically improve” U.S. facial recognition tools with “scaling to support millions of subjects.”
The FBI is “committed to responsible use of facial recognition technology ensuring it appropriately respects individuals’ privacy and civil liberties,” the bureau told the Post in a statement. The Department of Defense did not immediately return The Daily Wire’s request for comment.
The research into facial recognition technology has alarmed some on Capitol Hill. Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts introduced legislation on Tuesday that would prohibit the government from using facial recognition technology and other biotech tools, according to <a href="https://www.nextgov.com/technology-news/2023/03/lawmakers-intro-bill-ban-government-use-facial-recognition/383691/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nextgov</a>.
“The year is 2023, but we are living through 1984. The continued proliferation of surveillance tools like facial recognition technologies in our society is deeply disturbing,” Markey said in a statement. “Biometric data collection poses serious risks of privacy invasion and discrimination, and Americans know they should not have to forgo personal privacy for safety. As we work to make our country more equitable, we cannot ignore the technologies that stand in the way of progress and perpetuate injustice.”
Concerns over government use of facial recognition technology are bipartisan. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio <a href="https://fox59.com/news/republicans-and-democrats-concerned-about-facial-recognition-technology/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in 2021 that law enforcement could be risking civil rights violations by utilizing the technology.
“There are serious first amendment, fourth amendment concerns about the use of FRT by law enforcement,” Jordan said.
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
The ACLU <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/31/aclu-sues-fbi-doj-over-facial-recognition-technology-criticizing-unprecedented-surveillance-secrecy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> the FBI over the research into facial recognition technology in 2019.
“These technologies have the potential to enable undetectable, persistent, and suspicionless surveillance on an unprecedented scale,” ACLU attorneys wrote at the time. “Such surveillance would permit the government to pervasively track people’s movements and associations in ways that threaten core constitutional values.”

Surveillance camera

FBI, Pentagon Researched Facial Recognition Tech To Handle ‘Millions Of Subjects,’ Documents Say

ACLU

Facial Recognition

Pentagon

Politics

Technology

Washington D.C.

The federal government&#8217;s central technology arm jeopardized nearly one million online accounts by rejecting facial recognition technology when it was required for the high-security accounts, then cited “equity” to justify years of lying about its compliance with federal rules, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a> has learned.
The General Services Administration’s (GSA) technology group was tasked with creating Login.gov, a service that federal agencies would use to create accounts permitting access to government websites detailing personal or sensitive information. The service was required to follow rules set by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), and included offering a hacker- and impersonator-resistant option for agencies dealing with the most sensitive data, which must conform to a NIST standard called Identity Assurance Level 2 (IAL2).
GSA earned $187 million off the service after telling a government funding board that its solution met NIST’s exacting standards, and $10 million more from agencies who purchased the highest-security solution from GSA on the basis of its representations.
But GSA knew that its system was anything but compliant with IAL2, because it disregarded one of its most important security features: Using biometrics such as facial recognition, eye scans, or fingerprints to prove those seeking access to sensitive data were who they claimed to be. Officials opted to simply ignore that category because they said facial recognition technology might discriminate based on skin color, the <a href="https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/oig-reports/GSA/GSA-Misled-Customers-Logingovs-Compliance-Digital-Identity-Standards-JE23-003Redacted.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GSA Inspector General found</a> in a new audit.
“Put simply, Login.gov opted to ignore the standards and instead focused on selling Login.gov to customers without regard to NIST requirements,” the IG wrote. The audit said GSA “misled their customer agencies” and “knowingly billed” them for a product they were not receiving.
In response to IG, GSA acknowledged wrongdoing.
“Given that employees misled customer agencies about Login.gov&#8217;s compliance with NIST standards,&#8221; the director of Login.gov was reassigned, employee misconduct actions had been opened, and a “top-to-bottom review” of Login.gov had been ordered, officials said.
The audit found that top officials ignored insiders who pointed out that a product whose sole aim was cybersecurity was not actually secure, and that once they were caught, they misled agencies into believing they were withdrawing the webcam security feature because of new policy on “equity.” In reality, it had been out of compliance the whole time, with GSA having tricked agencies into using insecure software for years—sending federal agency officials tasked with online security into a tailspin when they learned the truth.
“As of May 2022, Login.gov had 906,187 users of Login.gov services that GSA purported to be IAL2 but did not comply,” the IG said. “Notwithstanding GSA officials’ assertions that Login.gov met [the] requirements, Login.gov has never included a physical or biometric comparison in production. Login.gov officials informed us that biometric comparison was not included in products offered to customer agencies, initially because the feature required testing before implementation and later because they further delayed it due to equity concerns.&#8221;
At multiple points, senior leaders with GSA’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS), the division under the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) in charge of the project, &#8220;learned that Login.gov did not comply with IAL2 requirements. They did not, however, notify customer agencies of the noncompliance. The inability to meet IAL2 NIST standards became the topic of discussions among Login.gov leaders and personnel at least as early as 2019, and included concerns that using individuals’ selfies to verify their identity could impact Login.gov’s rejection rates based on physical traits, such as skin color and tone,” it said.
&#8220;GSA misled the Technology Modernization Board in securing funding for Login.gov,&#8221; the IG wrote in September 2021.
GSA secured $187 million in federal funding after TTS Director/FAS Deputy Commissioner Vladlen “Dave” Zvenyach, then-GSA Chief Financial Officer Gerard Badorrek, and GSA Chief Information Officer David Shive attested that &#8220;Login.gov is currently used in production and complies with NIST’s 800-63-3 standard for strong authentication (AAL2) and identity verification (IAL2).&#8221;
Back in 2019, the GSA touted its “selfie” feature in marketing materials, stated in an “Agency Authorization to Operate” that the system “can support user validation at Identity Assurance Level 1 or 2 (IAL1 or IAL2),” and authorized agencies who were required to use IAL2 authentication to use Login.gov, even though a former Login.gov Product Manager told the IG “that the team knew that Login.gov did not comply with NIST 800-63-3 [another name for IAL2] as early as 2018.&#8221;
By January 2020, a senior advisor went to the top to sound the alarm about noncompliance, telling then-GSA Assistant Commissioner Dominic Sale and others. Sale &#8220;told him that because he was not the Director of Login.gov, it was not the Senior Advisor’s role to pursue the issue,&#8221; the IG found. In August 2020, a consultant flagged the same issue for a TTS employee, but the employee did not do anything about it because &#8220;he believed that everyone knew that Login.gov was not compliant.&#8221;
Zvenyach was put in charge of TTS in January 2021, and his boss, FAS Commissioner Sonny Hashmi, told the IG that &#8220;Zvenyach told him clearly that Login.gov met the IAL2 standards, and they were signing interagency agreements that stated they met the standard.&#8221;
Yet internal records showed that by June 24, 2021, not only was it not compliant, but Zvenyach had disavowed taking any steps that could get it into compliance. “The position of TTS is that the benefits of liveness/selfie does not outweigh any discriminatory impact, and therefore should not be used as a proofing requirement,” he wrote to staff in a Slack message.
The IG noted that there was no formal &#8220;documented justification&#8221; of this, &#8220;Zvenyach did not notify customer agencies when TTS suspended efforts to implement selfies to meet the NIST biometric comparison requirement,” and GSA “continued to withhold information from customer agencies about Login.gov’s lack of biometric comparison capabilities.”
The jig was up in January 2022, when a federal agency asked point-blank how the login system could possibly be compliant when it didn&#8217;t use webcams, fingerprints, or eye scanners. On January 20, 2022, the GSA released an &#8220;Equity Action Plan&#8221; that it said was required by the Biden administration, and days later, the GSA relied on the new policy to say that it would not meet NIST standards with Login.gov.
“On February 3, 2022, seven months after Zvenyach’s June 2021 internal announcement, GSA finally notified customer agencies that the IAL2 service included in their interagency agreements, for which they were paying, did not comply with NIST requirements,” the IG wrote. It told them with a statement that cited the days-old equity policy and &#8220;linked the lack of a biometric comparison feature to equity concerns. It omitted any mention of the duration and nature of Login.gov’s noncompliance with NIST’s IAL2 requirements.”
Federal security officials were shocked that they could no longer count on a secure login. &#8220;I reiterate how frustrating this is,&#8221; one wrote. &#8220;We have been promoting the use of IAL2 solutions pretty heavily,&#8221; another wrote. “Having a clear understanding of this is critical.”
&#8220;This is quite an issue. &#8230; You are now stating that IAL2 is no longer available as of today?” a third wrote. But the truth was worse&#8211;contrary to the message that misleadingly blamed a new equity policy, the agencies had unknowingly been out of compliance the whole time.
Agencies who relied on secure logins from GSA told the IG that &#8220;Login.gov’s noncompliance with the IAL2 standard created a greater risk of fraud for the customer agency,&#8221; &#8220;had an impact on the credibility of their program,&#8221; and could create liability because &#8220;the customer agency would be held responsible for allowing access to individuals at the wrong level.&#8221;
The IG said that after learning of TTS&#8217; equity-justified misrepresentations, GSA &#8220;reviewed the agreements for other misrepresentations,&#8221; and found that its authentication system was also not in compliance.
GSA Deputy Administrator Katy Kale notified the Technology Modernization Board that its proposal made statements “that could be interpreted to say Login.gov’s service meets NIST guidelines.” The IG slammed Kale for attempting to soften it, noting that “in fact,” GSA explicitly stated that it did verbatim.
“On August 16, 2022, the GSA Administrator announced the Zvenyach’s departure from GSA,” the IG said.
This is the first installment in a series.
Part 2: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-tech-arm-had-pattern-of-gross-mismanagement-before-equity-induced-cybersecurity-fiasco" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Federal Tech Arm Had Pattern Of ‘Gross Mismanagement’ Before ‘Equity’-Induced Cybersecurity Fiasco</a>
Part 3: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-agency-focused-on-leftist-politics-and-pronouns-as-gross-mismanagement-put-cybersecurity-at-risk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Federal Agency Focused On Leftist Politics And Pronouns As ‘Gross Mismanagement’ Put Cybersecurity At Risk</a>
Part 4: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chat-records-reveal-epic-meltdown-in-federal-agency-after-trump-win" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chat Records Reveal Epic Meltdown In Federal Agency After Trump Win</a>

General Services Administration

Feds Jeopardized Security Of 1M Americans’ Online Accounts, Citing ‘Equity’

Feds Jeopardized Security Of 1M Americans' Online Accounts, Citing 'Equity' 

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Equity

Hackers

Inspector general

Madison Square Garden Entertainment is using <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/facial-recognition" target="_blank" rel="noopener">facial recognition</a> technology to prevent attorneys from law firms representing clients suing the company from entering iconic venues in <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/new-york-city" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York City</a>.
The policy may violate state and federal laws prohibiting discrimination and retaliation toward individuals engaged in protected activities, such as “taking on legitimate cases, including sexual harassment or employment discrimination claims,” according to a <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/nys_oag_letter_to_madison_square_garden_entertainment_corp.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> from Kyle Rapiñan, an official with the New York State Office of the Attorney General. An <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/22/nyregion/madison-square-garden-facial-recognition.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigation</a> from the New York Times found that the company is stopping lawyers from entering the facility with the help of software that can identify their faces using profile photos on their companies’ websites.
Thousands of lawyers across several dozen firms may have been affected by the company’s move, according to the letter, which indicated that season ticket holders could be barred from attending events. Sports teams such as the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers play at Madison Square Garden, which is also a coveted concert venue.
In one example highlighted by the New York Times, personal injury lawyer Kelly Conlon was pulled aside while chaperoning her nine-year-old daughter to Radio City Music Hall for a Rockettes show. Security guards pulled Conlon aside and informed her that she had been placed on an “attorney exclusion list” created by the venue’s management.
Madison Square Garden Entertainment CEO James Dolan, whose family owns the company, affirmed during an <a href="https://www.fox5ny.com/news/msg-lawyer-ban-anti-bias-laws-madison-square-garden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with Fox 5 New York that he stands by the policy. “If somebody sues you, that’s confrontational, that’s adversarial,” he asserted. “There’s all kinds of politicians who are jumping into this, none for the right reasons.”
Although the use of facial recognition is presently legal in New York City, other state and local governments have prohibited the technology. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit last year against Google and Meta for breaches of state laws which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/texas-takes-google-to-court-for-allegedly-harvesting-biometric-data-without-consent" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prohibit</a> technology companies from using data such as iris scans, fingerprints, voiceprints, or records of hand and face geometry for commercial purposes without permission.
Other technology firms have likewise faced criticism from lawmakers over the collection of user data. Amazon smart doorbell company Ring informed Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) that the company has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/amazon-handed-over-ring-doorbell-footage-to-authorities" target="_blank" rel="noopener">provided</a> law enforcement with videos from user devices in emergency scenarios after making a “good-faith determination that there was an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury” involved in the situation. The lawmaker said that the policy justifies passage of the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act, which would prohibit state and federal entities from accessing Americans’ sensitive data.
“As my ongoing investigation into Amazon illustrates, it has become increasingly difficult for the public to move, assemble, and converse in public without being tracked and recorded,” Markey said in a <a href="https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markeys-probe-into-amazon-ring-reveals-new-privacy-problems" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a>. “We cannot accept this as inevitable in our country.”
ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of social media platform TikTok, recently garnered controversy for planning to track the location of specific American citizens, according to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tiktoks-parent-company-in-china-planned-to-use-platform-to-track-locations-of-specific-americans-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from Forbes. The company’s internal audit and risk department was originally purposed to investigate misconduct from employees, yet the team allegedly planned to collect data about the location of at least one American who had never been employed by ByteDance.

St Louis Blues v New York Rangers

Madison Square Garden Uses Facial Recognition Technology To Stop Certain People From Entering

Madison Square Garden Using Facial Recognition To Stop Lawyers From Entering

New York City

U.S.

In the early days of the Russian invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine’s defense ministry announced that it had started using facial recognition technology to identify Russian military members, as well as Ukrainians, who have been killed.
The announcement followed a letter to the Ukrainian government from co-founder and CEO of Clearview AI, Hoan Ton-That, &#8220;offering free training and usage of our product, which may be of help during this time of terrible conflict.”
“My heart goes out to the Ukrainian people, and my hope is our technology could be used to prevent harm, save innocent people, and protect lives,” Hoan said, before offering assistance to the Ukrainian government.
“We would be honored to help in any way,” Hoan concluded.
How does Clearview AI work?
“Clearview AI is a facial recognition search engine that can instantly identify someone from just a photo,” Hoan explained in his letter to the Ukrainian government. 
The system works by matching a given image with one of over 10 billion photos scraped from the internet.
According to Hoan, Clearview AI is currently used by “law enforcement agencies, military bases, including the FBI, Homeland Security, and more.” 
Clearview AI’s image database includes a large number of photographs taken from Russian social media platforms, such as Vkontakte.
“We have over 2 billion images from the Vkontakte social network in the Clearview AI database,” Hoan claimed.
In his letter to the Ukrainian government, Hoan listed several potential use-cases for the system:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“Identifying Infiltrators” — The Clearview AI system could allow Ukrainian authorities to use a photograph of a person (or even their ID card) to gain access to identifying information, such as “their real name, associates, friends, family, and links to any public information online about that person.” This could allow “[p]otential infiltrators who may be posing as to help Ukraine” to be “instantly vetted in real time.”</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“Deceased People” — The Clearview AI system could help with the identification of those killed during the conflict without the use of fingerprints, which are “hard to obtain.” According to Hoan, the platform “works effectively regardless of facial damage that may have occurred to a deceased person,” which is particularly important given the physical impact of the Russian invasion.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“Fighting Misinformation” — Noting the explosive spread of misinformation and disinformation on social media, Hoan claimed that Clearview AI could be used to “help correct misinformation in real-time as it shows up.”</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“Family Reunification” — The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also sparked a refugee crisis, with millions of Ukrainian civilians fleeing the country. “In situations where there are refugees who are separated from their family,” Hoan wrote, “facial recognition technology can help identify people who may be stuck in refugee camps, who may not have paperwork or identification, and help them reunify with their families.”</li>
</ul>
In a statement to the Daily Wire, Clearview AI explained that their “bias-free facial recognition algorithm can work on photos from multiple angles, in darkness, with and without glasses and facial hair, photos of only parts of a face, due to state of the art artificial intelligence technology.”
Noting the use-cases in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Clearview AI also stated that their software “has been shown to be successful in the field when identifying deceased bodies, even with some facial damage.”
“War zones can be dangerous when there is no way to tell apart enemy combatants from civilians. Facial recognition technology can help reduce uncertainty and increase safety in these situations,” Hoan told the Daily Wire.
He then explained that Cleaview AI’s algorithm can “pick the correct face out of a lineup of over 12 million photos” at an accuracy rate of 99.85 percent, based on “NIST 1:N Face Recognition Vendor Test.”
This is “much more accurate than the human eye,” Hoan noted, adding that it would “prevent misidentifications from happening in the field.”
How is it being used?
According to Clearview AI, over 300 accounts had been created by Ukrainian authorities, with over 10,000 searches being performed. Hoan told the Daily Wire that Ukrainian officials have “expressed their enthusiasm” regarding the program, and are now being trained on safe and effective use of the facial recognition software. Hoan added that “[s]earch results from Clearview AI should not be the sole source of identification.”
In addition, Clearview AI’s platform has been translated into Ukrainian, and is reportedly being used by at least five Ukrainian government agencies.
One documented use case of Clearview AI involves the identification of dead Russian soldiers. In a Telegram post by the Ukrainian vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, he outlined an ongoing campaign to combat Russian propaganda efforts to hide the human cost of their invasion of Ukraine. By identifying Russian soldiers who have been killed, and attempting to reach their families, the Ukrainian government hopes to “dispel the myth of a ‘special operation’ in which there are ‘no conscripts’ and ‘no one dies,’” he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/technology/facial-recognition-ukraine-clearview.html">explained</a>.
What are critics saying?
In the United States, there are significant privacy concerns regarding Clearview AI’s data collection processes, especially since Clearview provides U.S. law enforcement with its services. Clearview AI is currently facing several lawsuits in the United States.
In fact, several countries — including the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, France and Australia — have deemed its practices <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-ukraine-has-started-using-clearview-ais-facial-recognition-during-war-2022-03-13/">illegal</a>, referencing the alleged use of people&#8217;s photos without their consent. Meanwhile, Clearview AI has defended its image-gathering strategy, saying it’s similar to Google Search.
There is also a concern that various tech companies may be leveraging the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a way to expand their influence with little-to-no oversight in terms of privacy. 
In addition, some critics of facial recognition software argue that the technology should be banned, claiming it can be abused by governments to persecute minority communities or suppress dissidents.
“War zones are often used as testing grounds not just for weapons but surveillance tools that are later deployed on civilian populations or used for law enforcement or crowd control purposes,” Evan Greer, a deputy director for the digital rights group, Fight for the Future, said. “Companies like Clearview are eager to exploit the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine to normalize the use of their harmful and invasive software.”
“We already know that authoritarian states like Russia use facial recognition surveillance to crack down on protests and dissent,” Greer added. “Expanding the use of facial recognition doesn’t hurt authoritarians like Putin — it helps them.”
In a statement to the Daily Wire, Clearview AI’s chief executive responded to these accusations, saying that he “created the consequential facial recognition technology known the world over with the purpose of helping to make communities safer and assisting law enforcement in solving heinous crimes against children, seniors and other victims of unscrupulous acts.”
“We only collect public data from the open internet and comply with all standards of privacy and law,” Hoan continued. “I am heartbroken by the misinterpretation by some in the EU, where we do no business, of Clearview AI’s technology to society.  My intentions and those of my company have always been to help communities and their people to live better, safer lives.”
Hoan then noted that “[w]ar zones can be dangerous” when there is no way to distinguish between enemy combatants and civilians, arguing that “[f]acial recognition technology can help reduce uncertainty and increase safety in these situations.”
“Unlike facial recognition technology applied in other authoritarian countries, Clearview AI&#8217;s technology is not used in a real-time way, but in a manner that is after the incident has occured,” Hoan concluded. “Our goal is to use our technology to make our communities safer. We are honored to provide our life saving technology for free to the Ukrainian government.”
Some U.S.-based companies have even pulled back from facial recognition technology in recent years. For example, Facebook <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/facebook-shutting-down-facial-recognition-system-citing-societal-concerns">announced</a> in November 2021 that it would be shutting down its facial recognition system, citing “societal concerns” made worse by the fact that “regulators have yet to provide clear rules.”
“We’re shutting down the Face Recognition system on Facebook,” the company announced in a <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/11/update-on-use-of-face-recognition/">blog post</a>. “People who’ve opted in will no longer be automatically recognized in photos and videos and we will delete more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates.”
There are also concerns that misidentification could result in disastrous consequences. For example, Privacy International, a digital rights group, cited this risk when they <a href="https://privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/4806/clearviewukraine-partnership-how-surveillance-companies-exploit-war">called</a> on Clearview AI to pull back from Ukraine.
“The risks and perils of facial recognition and online surveillance have been extensively aired, and in a war context the potential consequences would be too atrocious to be tolerated — such as mistaking civilians for soldiers, or Ukrainians for Russian soldiers,” Privacy International argued, before noting the potential for interference by the Russian government, given “Putin&#8217;s vast record of perpetrating online manipulation.”
The views expressed in this piece are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
This article has been updated to include additional comment from Clearview AI chief executive, Hoan Ton-That.

Ukraine

How Facial Recognition Software Is Changing The War In Ukraine

Big Tech

Privacy

Readers Pass

Ukraine-Russia War

Bucheon, a city in South Korea, is planning to test a facial recognition system which is built on data from 10,000 surveillance cameras to track those infected with COVID-19.
“The system will be tested in January in Bucheon, a metropolitan area of 800,000 people on the edge of Seoul, the country’s capital. City officials hope the system can help trace the recent movements of people who test positive, their interactions with other people and whether masks were worn,” reported <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/13/world/asia/south-korea-facial-recognition-coronavirus.html">The New York Times</a>.
This system was <a href="https://www.nia.or.kr/site/nia_kor/ex/bbs/View.do?cbIdx=78336&amp;bcIdx=23008&amp;parentSeq=23008">approved</a> in February by the federal Ministry of Science and Information and Communications Technology. 
“Facial recognition has its limitations. The technology has struggled to identify people who are wearing masks. The huge amount of data required to identify individuals in large populations had also stymied engineers. To make such a system work, authorities must generally have a large database of citizens’ photos for the technology to draw on, raising privacy concerns,” the Times added. “The Bucheon plan seeks to address such concerns, though the details made public are limited. A person’s consent must be obtained before the system may access his or her information, the proposal said, and the data would be provided only to quarantine authorities. It was not clear whether the system would make use of a national or regional database of photos of citizens, or just a local one.”
South Korea isn’t the first country to use facial recognition technology as part of their COVID response. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-moscow-technology-idUSKBN20F1RZ">Russia</a> used similar systems to enforce quarantine restrictions on their citizens.
“Moscow is using facial recognition technology to ensure people ordered to remain at home or at their hotels under coronavirus quarantine do so, the mayor of the Russian capital said on Friday,” reported <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-moscow-technology-idUSKBN20F1RZ">Reuters</a> in February 2020.
“Compliance with the regime is constantly monitored, including with the help of facial recognition systems and other technical measures,” wrote Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, on his website.
The subject of facial recognition software is particularly controversial, especially when it comes to matters of privacy. In November, Facebook even <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/facebook-shutting-down-facial-recognition-system-citing-societal-concerns">announced</a> that it would be shutting down its facial recognition system, citing “societal concerns” made worse by the fact that “regulators have yet to provide clear rules.”
“We’re shutting down the Face Recognition system on Facebook,” the company announced in a <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/11/update-on-use-of-face-recognition/">blog post</a>. “People who’ve opted in will no longer be automatically recognized in photos and videos and we will delete more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates.”
While acknowledging that facial recognition technology can be a “powerful tool,” Facebook stated that “the many specific instances where facial recognition can be helpful need to be weighed against growing concerns about the use of this technology as a whole.”
The potentially invasive use cases for facial recognition have become increasingly clear on the international stage. A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-china-testing-emotion-detection-software-on-uyghur-muslims-like-rats-in-laboratories">bombshell report</a> from the BBC in May, for example, indicated that the Chinese Communist government has been testing an artificial intelligence (AI) emotion-detection camera system on Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
A software engineer who <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57101248">claimed</a> to have installed this facial and emotion detection system in police stations in the province home to 12 million ethnic minority Uyghurs said, “The Chinese government use Uyghurs as test subjects for various experiments just like rats are used in laboratories.”

Bucheon, South Korea

South Korea Will Test Facial Recognition Tech To Track People Infected With COVID-19

China

Facebook

South Korea

On Wednesday, the city of Portland — which has been decimated by rioters the last three months — banned the use of facial-recognition technology by local police.
“Its decision to prevent both local government and businesses from employing the technology appears to be the most sweeping ban yet by an individual city,” <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/0">CNN reported</a>, adding:
<blockquote>The <a href="https://www.portlandoregon.gov/auditor/article/765749">new rule</a> prevents <a href="https://www.portlandoregon.gov/auditor/article/765749">&#8220;private entities in places of public accommodation&#8221;</a> in Portland from using it, too, referring to businesses that serve the general public — a grocery store or a pizza place, for instance. It does not prevent individuals from setting up facial-recognition technology at home, such as a Google Nest camera that can spot familiar faces, or gadgets that use facial-recognition software for authenticating users, like Apple&#8217;s Face ID feature for unlocking an iPhone.</blockquote>
The rule explains, “Face Recognition means the automated searching for a reference image in an image repository by comparing the facial features of a probe image with the features of images contained in an image repository (one-to-many search). A Face Recognition search will typically result in one or more most likely candidates—or candidate images—ranked by computer-evaluated similarity or will return a negative result … Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities have been subject to over surveillance and disparate and detrimental impact of the misuse of surveillance.”
The rule also states, “The City of Portland must be a welcoming city, a sanctuary city, and an inclusive city for all, including residents and visitors.&#8221;
Leftist Democrat Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler stated, &#8220;Technology exists to make our lives easier, not for public and private entities to use as a weapon against the very citizens they serve and accommodate.”
Jann Carson, interim executive director of the ACLU of Oregon, reacted with <a href="https://www.aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/aclu-oregon-comment-portland-ban-facial-recognition-technology">effusive praise</a> for Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty and vitrol for the Portland Police Department, ranting:
<blockquote>Portland Police for months have been gassing, beating, and violently attacking the people of Portland to suppress their demands for racial justice. With today’s vote, the community made clear we hold the real power in this city. We will not let Portland turn into a surveillance state where police and corporations alike can track us wherever we go.
Face surveillance is an invasive threat to our privacy, especially to Black people, Indigenous people, people of color, and women, who frequently are misidentified by the technology. We appreciate Commissioner Hardesty’s leadership and applaud Portland for banning the government and corporate use of facial recognition technology.</blockquote>
It would make sense Carson praised Hardesty; in July she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/portland-city-commissioner-claims-police-sent-saboteurs-to-start-violence-cause-fires-then-she-apologizes">stated</a> that it was the Portland police, not the rioters in the city, who started fires around government buildings and triggered violence.
&#8220;I am old enough to remember that during the Civil Rights movement, the police had provocateurs…intentionally added to the group to do disruptive stuff,&#8221; Hardesty told <a href="https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/a33385651/portland-jo-ann-hardesty-protests/?fbclid=IwAR3I6VvPjn9a8DMZOvaDD6ZRNh7sI16HPMOg2XQU603xe26wK3dFDFmnRhs">Marie Claire</a>. &#8220;I have no doubt in my mind, I believe with all my heart, that that is what Portland police are doing &#8230; I believe Portland Police [Bureau] is lying about the damage — or starting the fires themselves — so that they have justification for attacking community members.&#8221;
Speaking at a webinar on Wednesday hosted by Western States Center, Hardesty stated, &#8220;I absolutely believe that it is police action, and they are sending saboteurs and provocateurs into peaceful crowds so that they can justify their inhumane treatment of people who are standing up for their rights.”