Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Wed 05/28/2025 View Tue 05/27/2025 View Mon 05/26/2025 View Sun 05/25/2025 View Sat 05/24/2025 View Fri 05/23/2025 View Thu 05/22/2025
2021-11-09 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IDF building facial recognition database of Palestinians in Hebron — report
[IsraelTimes] Washington Post details how Blue Wolf technology is used to screen Paleostinians in West Bank city, with soldiers incentivized to take photos of residents

The Israel Defense Forces is utilizing advanced facial recognition technology to screen Paleostinians in the West Bank city of Hebron, building a digital surveillance database of residents by having soldiers take cellphone photos of them, the Washington Post reported Monday.

According to the report, the surveillance initiative was rolled out over the past two years and is based in part on a smartphone technology called Blue Wolf that captures photos of Hebron residents’ faces and matches them to a mass database.

Continued from Page 2



The Washington Post estimated that several thousand Paleostinians had been photographed for the database, with former soldiers describing to the paper how they were incentivized to take as many photos as possible, including of children, based on a reward system.

In addition to Blue Wolf, the report said, the IDF has installed face-scanning cameras at Hebron checkpoints to help soldiers identify Paleostinians before they present their ID cards.

"I wouldn’t feel comfortable if they used it in the mall in [my hometown], let’s put it that way," a recently discharged soldier described as having served in an intelligence unit told the paper. "People worry about fingerprinting, but this is that several times over."

She said that she was motivated to speak out because the Hebron surveillance system was a "total violation of privacy of an entire people."

Hebron is considered a West Bank powder keg where around 800 Jewish settlers live under hefty Israeli army security, surrounded by around 200,000 Paleostinians. The city is home to the site known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs and to Moslems as the Ibrahimi Mosque, which is revered by both faiths.

The report was based on interviews with soldiers who had previously shared their stories with Breaking the Silence, an Israeli organization that gathers and publishes largely anonymous testimonies by former Israeli combat soldiers about alleged human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
violations against Paleostinians in the West Bank.

The paper said that while the IDF has acknowledged the existence of the initiative in an online brochure, the report was the first public description of the program’s scope and operations.

In response to questions about the surveillance program, the IDF said that "routine security operations" were "part of the fight against terrorism and the efforts to improve the quality of life for the Paleostinian population in [the West Bank]."

"Naturally, we cannot comment on the IDF’s operational capabilities in this context," the statement added.

Facial recognition technology has come under greater scrutiny from civil rights activists and regulators worldwide, who say the technology is biased and infringes on privacy. The technology, which uses visual images to help computers identify people, is in wide use, from unlocking phones to picking out a suspect’s face at borders or mass gatherings. Since increased use of the technology could help keep crime and terror in check, a global debate is now raging regarding the pros and cons of this technology.

The European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
has proposed a law to limit use of such technology by the police, and it has been banned in several US cities including the Socialist paradise of San Francisco
...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964...
and Boston. Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch shot Black Bart's knife out of his hand......
tech firms, including Google’s Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon, have said they will halt or curb sales of facial recognition technology.

In March last year Microsoft pulled its investment from facial recognition company AnyVision even though the US tech giant couldn’t substantiate claims that the startup’s technology was being used unethically. The firm and the backing it had received from Microsoft’s investment arm had attracted public scrutiny, as the Israeli military reportedly installed face scanners at border crossings where Paleostinians enter Israel from the West Bank.

Shortly after the outbreak of the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
, AnyVision installed thermal cameras at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel’s largest hospital, to let officials spot hospital staff with a fever.
Posted by trailing wife 2021-11-09 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11130 views ]  Top

#1 We knew FaceBook sold it to someone.
Posted by Skidmark 2021-11-09 13:45||   2021-11-09 13:45|| Front Page Top

07:43 Procopius2k
07:42 BrerRabbit
07:42 Procopius2k
07:39 Procopius2k
07:36 Procopius2k
07:35 Procopius2k
07:34 trailing wife
07:31 Procopius2k
07:30 NN2N1
07:22 NN2N1
07:18 trailing wife
07:14 Richard Aubrey
07:10 NN2N1
07:09 Besoeker
07:03 NN2N1
06:58 NN2N1
06:58 Besoeker
05:28 Whiskey Mike
05:23 Whiskey Mike
05:21 Whiskey Mike
05:18 Whiskey Mike
05:15 Whiskey Mike
05:13 Whiskey Mike
05:08 Whiskey Mike









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com