Russian authorities have used facial recognition technology to identify and arrest some citizens who attended the funeral of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The Russian watchdog OVD-Info reports that at least five people who attended the event have been arrested in Moscow.
See also: Russia bans officials from using iPhones
Navalny’s funeral on March 1 was packed with supporters who flouted Russia’s strict laws against pro- Ukrainian speech . One woman was recorded on video saying “ Glory to the heroes ,” the traditional response to the “ Glory to Ukraine ” salute. She was banned from “ displaying prohibited symbols ” and was fined a small amount, but was allowed to return home the next day, Semafor reports .
The Russian independent news agency Agenstvo reports that several other funeral attendees were arrested, although the charges against them remain unknown.
OVD-Info spokesman Dmitry Anisimovtold the Agency that Russian police were able to identify and track people from Navalny’s funeral “right down to their doorstep” using technology . A few days before the funeral took place, authorities installed several new surveillance cameras around the church and cemetery.
Russia is one of many repressive regimes that rely on facial recognition technology to identify dissidents. It has been used extensively to arrest hundreds of protesters since the invasion of Ukraine.
See also: Russia blocks Discord, Microsoft Teams, Snapchat, Telegram and other apps
According to Reuters, in 2017, Moscow announced the launch of one of the world’s largest facial recognition video surveillance networks, which at the time consisted of 160,000 cameras, more than 3,000 of them connected to the facial recognition system. Originally designed to identify and arrest criminals, the network is now being used to track protesters and dissidents like those who attended Navalny’s funeral.
According to Reuters, at least three of the companies (three Russian, one from Belarus) that provide the algorithms for Russia's facial recognition systems have used processors from Nvidia or Intel in combination with these algorithms, without however any suspicion that the Western companies violated sanctions.
China country where authorities are heavily focused on facial recognition. It was reported in 2018 that some of China's police officers were using glasses with the technology built into them, and it was once used to identify a suspect in a crowd of 50,000 people. China even uses footstep recognition to identify people who are trying to hide their faces.
See also: RuWiki: Russia to launch its own Wikipedia clone
Facial recognition technology works through a series of complex processes. First, the device's camera or sensor captures an image or video of a face. Facial recognition software then uses algorithms to analyze facial features, such as the distance between the eyes, the length of the nose, the position of the cheekbones, and other distinctive features. These features are converted into a numerical code or 'face profile', which can then be compared to data stored in a database. However, it is important to note that the accuracy of facial recognition technology can be affected by many factors, such as image quality, shooting angle, and brightness.
Source: techspot
