Ukraine applies facial recognition technology in the war with Russia

Lee Wolosky, a former US diplomat and adviser to Clearview, said the company’s facial-search technology allows Kiev authorities to check on people of interest at checkpoints, as well as many other applications.

Shortly after the military conflict broke out, Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That sent a letter offering to help Ukraine in the war, Reuters reported.

Clearview says that the technology is only recommended for Kiev, not Moscow. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry did not comment on the incident.

Earlier, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Ministry said that the country was considering the offers of US-based artificial intelligence companies such as Clearview. Many Western companies have also provided Internet equipment, security tools and other support to the Eastern European country.

According to the founder of Clearview, the company has more than 2 billion images pulled from the Russian social media service VKontakte, in a database of more than 10 billion images.

This database could make it easier for Ukraine to identify deaths than with fingerprints, even in cases where the victim’s face is disfigured, Ton-That said.

In the letter, the Clearview chief said that their technology could be used to help refugees reunite with their families, identify Russian spies and help the government remove misinformation on social media. related to the war.

It is not yet clear what tasks the Ukrainian Defense Ministry will apply this technology to. Other government agencies are expected to roll out Clearview in the coming days.

Wolosky said that the images from VKontakte make Clearview’s data set more comprehensive than PimEyes, a built-in image search engine used for personal identification. VKontakte did not comment on the above. Meanwhile, Meta has asked Clearview to stop taking data from Facebook.

There have been concerns that facial-recognition technology could be misleading at checkpoints and on the battlefield. Inaccurate results can lead to the death of innocent civilians, said Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the New York-based Surveillance Technology Management Project.

“We’re going to see technology that has good intentions but backfires and harms those who need it.”

Responding to concerns, Ton – That said that Clearview should not be used as the sole source of verification and that he did not want the technology to be used to violate the Geneva conventions, on humane treatment in war. painting.

Similar to other users, Ukraine is receiving instruction on the use of this technology and is required to enter the case number and the reason for the search before making a query.

Clearview’s main customers are US law enforcement. The company is also facing lawsuits alleging that it violated privacy by taking images from websites. Clearview counters that the data it collects is similar to how Google Search works. However, some countries such as the UK and Australia have made these activities illegal.

Cahn thinks the technology should only be used to identify deaths, rather than being deployed in other aspects of the war. “Once these systems and data are used in a war zone, no one can control how it is misused.”

Vinh Ngo(According to Reuters)