Russian companies accused of building facial recognition ethnicity analytics
An investigation revealed that Russian technology companies AxxonSoft, Tevian, VisionLabs, and NtechLab built facial recognition powered tools to identify people based on their race or ethnicity. The finding by video surveillance company IVPM prompted digital rights advocates to express concerns that facial recognition technologies could be used to deepen existing racial and ethnic discrimination in the country , and elsewhere. According to Reuters , there was no indication that Russian police had targeted minorities using the firms' softwa re. I n response, AxxonSoft disabled its ethnicity analytics feature, claiming it was not interested in promoting technologies that could be a basis for ethnic segregation. Tevian denied that current uses of its tool by police could entrench discrimination, and VisionLabs stated its ethnicity analytics software was developed for internal research purposes only . The Russian government is a customer of each company; NtechLab is partially funded and owned by the Russian government. System 🤖 AxxonSoft 🔗 NtechLab 🔗 Tevian 🔗 VisionLabs 🔗 Operator: Moscow Department of Technology Developer: AxxonSoft; Tevian; VisionLabs; NtechLab Country: Russia Sector: Govt - transport Purpose: Identify ethnicity Technology: Facial recognition Issue: Fairness; Privacy/surveillance
- Date it happened
- 2021-07-01
- Organisation involved
- Moscow Department of Technology
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