Israel
has
deployed
a
mass
facial
recognition
program
in
the
Gaza
Strip,
creating
a
database
of
Palestinians
without
their
knowledge
or
consent,
The
New
York
Times
reports.
The
program,
which
was
created
after
the
October
7th
attacks,
uses
technology
from
Google
Photos
as
well
as
a
custom
tool
built
by
the
Tel
Aviv-based
company
Corsight
to
identify
people
affiliated
with
Hamas.
The
facial
recognition
program
was
built
in
tandem
with
Israel’s
military
offensive
in
Gaza,
according
to
the
Times
report.
After
the
October
7th
attacks,
officers
within
the
Israeli
military’s
Unit
8200,
the
Israeli
Defense
Forces’
main
intelligence
unit,
identified
potential
targets
by
watching
security
camera
footage
and
videos
Hamas
had
uploaded
to
social
media.
Soldiers
also
asked
Palestinian
prisoners
to
identify
people
from
their
communities
who
were
affiliated
with
Hamas.
Corsight,
which
has
boasted
that
its
technology
can
accurately
identify
people
even
if
less
than
50
percent
of
their
face
is
visible,
used
these
photos
to
build
a
facial
recognition
tool
Israeli
officers
could
use
in
Gaza.
To
further
build
out
its
database
—
and
identify
potential
targets
—
the
Israeli
military
set
up
checkpoints
equipped
with
facial
recognition
cameras
along
major
roads
Palestinian
used
to
flee
south.
The
goal,
one
officer
told
the
Times,
was
to
create
a
“hit
list”
of
people
who
participated
in
the
October
7th
attack.
In
some
instances,
Corsight’s
tool
mistakenly
identified
people
as
being
connected
to
Hamas
Soldiers
told
the
Times
Corsight’s
technology
wasn’t
always
accurate,
particularly
when
it
relied
on
grainy
footage
or
photos
where
people’s
faces
were
obscured.
In
some
instances,
Corsight’s
tool
mistakenly
identified
people
as
being
connected
to
Hamas.
One
such
case
involved
Palestinian
poet
Mosab
Abu
Toha,
who
was
plucked
from
an
Israeli
military
checkpoint
on
Gaza’s
central
highway
in
mid-November
while
he
was
trying
to
leave
Gaza
for
Egypt
with
his
family.
The
system
had
flagged
Abu
Toha
as
being
on
an
Israeli
list
of
wanted
persons.
Israeli
officers
held
Abu
Toha
in
a
detention
facility,
where
he
was
beaten
and
interrogated
for
two
days
before
being
returned
to
Gaza
without
an
explanation.
The
Israeli
military
has
supplemented
Corsight’s
technology
with
Google
Photos
—
which,
unlike
Corsight,
is
free
to
use
—
soldiers
told
the
Times.
Intelligence
officers
have
uploaded
databases
of
“known
persons”
to
Google
Photos
and
used
the
photo
search
function
to
further
identify
people.
One
officer
told
the
Times
that
Google
Photos
could
identify
people
even
when
only
a
small
portion
of
their
face
was
visible,
making
it
better
than
other
tools,
including
Corsight.
Corsight’s
executives
and
funders
have
been
vocal
about
their
desire
to
help
the
Israeli
military
in
its
ongoing
war
in
the
Gaza
Strip.
In
an
October
op-ed
for
The
Jerusalem
Post,
Aaron
Ashkenazi
—
the
founder
and
managing
partner
of
the
Canadian
fund
Awz
Ventures,
which
led
Corsight’s
$5
million
funding
round
in
2020
— wrote
that
Awz
was
providing
Israel
“with
the
technological
tools
to
stop
these
evil
terrorists
in
their
tracks.”
Most
of
the
companies
in
Awz’s
portfolio
are
in
the
artificial
intelligence
and
cybersecurity
sectors.
In
October,
some
hospitals
in
Israel
started
using
Corsight’s
technology
to
identify
patients,
Forbes
reported
at
the
time.
According
to
the
Forbes
report,
Corsight’s
technology
was
able
to
take
images
of
people
“whose
features
had
been
impacted
by
physical
trauma,
and
find
a
match
amongst
photos
sent
in
by
concerned
family
members.”
Corsight
is
primarily
focused
on
government,
law
enforcement,
and
military
uses.
In
2020,
the
one-year-old
company
said
its
technology
could
identify
masked
faces.
Two
years
later,
Corsight
claimed
to
be
developing
a
tool
that
could
create
a
model
of
a
person’s
face
based
on
their
DNA.
Last
year,
Corsight
worked
with
the
metropolitan
police
in
Bogotá,
Colombia,
to
track
down
murder
and
theft
suspects
on
the
public
transit
system.
Corsight
did
not
respond
to
request
for
comment.
(Originally posted by Gaby Del Valle)
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