Israeli Military Said to Use Google Photos to Identify Gaza Residents, Often Wrongly Arrested!

Liputan6.com, Jakarta – Israeli military intelligence uses an experimental facial recognition program in Gaza. The tool reportedly misidentified Palestinian civilians, said to be linked to Hamas.

New York Times reported Google Photos allegedly played a role in implementing the program, although apparently not through direct collaboration with the company.

Quoting page EngadgetThursday (28/3/2024), the surveillance program was carried out as a way to search for Israeli hostages in Gaza.

“However, as is often the case with new technologies in times of war, the initiative was quickly expanded to eliminate anyone with ties to Hamas or other militant groups,” according to New York Times.

The technology has flaws, but the Israeli military reportedly does not care when detaining civilians flagged by the system.

According to intelligence officers who spoke to New York Timesthe program uses technology from private Israeli company Corsight.

Headquartered in Tel Aviv, it promises its surveillance system can accurately recognize people whose faces are less than half exposed. This should be effective even with extreme angles, dark conditions, and poor quality (including from drones).

But an officer in Israel's Unit 8200 learned that in reality the unit often had problems with faces that were blurry, indistinct, or scarred.

According to the official, Corsight technology is often wrong and there are many cases where an identified Palestinian is marked as having ties to Hamas.