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The facial recognition system in Moscow works with algorithms produced by a Belarusian company and three Russian companies. Well, according to the Reuters investigation, at least three of those companies have used chips from US firms Nvidia Corp and Intel Corp along with their algorithms.
Moscow, the Russian capital, is a city that has one of the most advanced video surveillance networks in the world. In 2017, the Mayor’s Office announced that a total of 160,000 cameras were installed and more than 3,000 of them were connected to a facial recognition system.
During the pandemic they were key to imposing fines but also since 2021, according to an investigation by the Reuters agency, they played a key role in identifying and subsequently arresting protesters. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, this network was even used to prevent people from protesting.
Pauline Norstrom, executive director of ‘Anekanta Consulting’ explained that “facial recognition is software that analyzes the image of a face and creates a coordinate network that maps facial details like the distance between the eyes and stuff. Those coordinates are unique in people. It’s a face map, it’s your face map, and it’s classified as unique biometric information that could be paired with other data that gives more information.”
The facial recognition system in Moscow works with algorithms produced by a Belarusian company and three Russian companies. Well, according to the Reuters investigation, at least three of those companies have used chips from US firms Nvidia Corp and Intel Corp along with their algorithms.
This does not mean that Nvidia or Intel have violated sanctions since they stopped shipping their products to Russia in March 2022.
In addition, according to Reuters, one of the Russian and Belarusian companies participated in a facial recognition test program developed by the United States, aimed at evaluating emerging technologies and run by a branch of the Department of Commerce.
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