#Surveillance#Biometrics#FacialRecognition#Israel#Palestine#Gaza: "Israel is deploying a mass facial recognition program in Gaza, conducting surveillance of Palestinians without their knowledge or consent, according to a new report from The New York Times.
As the publisher reports, speaking to Israeli intelligence officers, military officials, and soldiers, the facial recognition program is run by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)'s military Unit 8200, which is "collecting and cataloging the faces of Palestinians". The program reportedly uses technology from Corsight, an Israel facial recognition company that provides services for government agencies, law enforcement, and corporations, alongside Google Photos.
The Times says this mass surveillance is being rolled out in Israel to identify members of Hamas, following the Oct. 7 attacks. The Israeli military also set up checkpoints — along roads Palestinians are using to flee the war — with facial recognition cameras, and soldiers have used security camera footage, videos uploaded by Hamas on social media, and also asked Palestinian prisoners to identify anyone affiliated with Hamas." https://mashable.com/article/israel-palestine-gaza-facial-recognition-program
"Facial recognition technology has spread across the globe in recent years, fueled by increasingly sophisticated A.I. systems. While some countries use the technology to make air travel easier, China and Russia have deployed the technology against minority groups and to suppress dissent. Israel’s use of facial recognition in Gaza stands out as an application of the technology in a war.
Matt Mahmoudi, a researcher with Amnesty International, said Israel’s use of facial recognition was a concern because it could lead to “a complete dehumanization of Palestinians” where they were not seen as individuals. He added that Israeli soldiers were unlikely to question the technology when it identified a person as being part of a militant group, even though the technology makes mistakes.
Israel previously used facial recognition in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to an Amnesty report last year, but the effort in Gaza goes further.
In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israelis have a homegrown facial recognition system called Blue Wolf, according to the Amnesty report. At checkpoints in West Bank cities such as Hebron, Palestinians are scanned by high-resolution cameras before being permitted to pass. Soldiers also use smartphone apps to scan the faces of Palestinians and add them to a database, the report said." https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/27/technology/israel-facial-recognition-gaza.html
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