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Russia allegedly using facial recognition to preventatively detain protesters | Biometric Update
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Relevant case study for AI governance discussions around dual-use surveillance technology, illustrating how facial recognition systems can be deployed by state actors to suppress political dissent and circumvent civil liberties.
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Importance: 45/100news articlenews
Summary
Reports indicate Russian authorities are deploying facial recognition technology to identify and preemptively detain individuals before they can participate in protests, representing a significant escalation in AI-enabled authoritarian surveillance. This use case demonstrates how biometric AI systems can be weaponized for predictive political suppression rather than reactive law enforcement.
Key Points
- •Russian authorities allegedly using facial recognition to identify and detain protesters before they can assemble, representing a shift to predictive political suppression.
- •The technology enables mass surveillance infrastructure to be used for preventative detention, bypassing traditional due process protections.
- •Illustrates the gap between facial recognition's commercial/security use cases and its deployment as a tool of authoritarian control.
- •Raises concerns about how AI surveillance systems exported or developed globally could be repurposed for political repression.
- •Demonstrates real-world consequences of deploying powerful AI capabilities without adequate governance or human rights safeguards.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| AI Surveillance and Regime Durability Model | Analysis | 64.0 |
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# Russia allegedly using facial recognition to preventatively detain protesters
Mar 29, 2023, 5:59 pm EDT \|
[Chris Burt](https://www.biometricupdate.com/author/chris-burt)
Categories [Biometrics News](https://www.biometricupdate.com/biometric-news) \| [Facial Recognition](https://www.biometricupdate.com/biometric-news/facial-recognition-biometric-articles) \| [Surveillance](https://www.biometricupdate.com/biometric-news/surveillance-biometric-articles)
What remained of the right to protest and express political opinions in Russia appears to be a casualty of the country’s war with Ukraine, and a new report claims that facial recognition is being used by authorities to identify people who are not accused of committing any crime for detention.
[Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/ukraine-crisis-russia-detentions/) reports that hundreds of arrests of protestors have been informed by the 160,000 surveillance cameras deployed around Moscow; at least 3,000 of which are integrated with facial recognition. Many of those arrests occurred in 2021, court records show.
Authorities in Russia have now pivoted to using facial recognition to identify people who may protest in the future, and intervene on a preventative basis.
A lawyer with human rights group OVD-Info says that the practice is new. The group has counted 141 preventative detentions carried out with facial recognition in 2022.
One protestor describes a violent detention by police in Moscow to Reuters, which differed from previous times when he had been detained, in that it did not follow an incident of activism. He was not charged with an offense. Reuters suggests the detention follows a pattern.
The outlet interviewed 29 people who were stopped by police in Moscow’s metro system, which has an extensive facial recognition system for [payments](https://www.biometricupdate.com/202301/moscow-metro-to-expand-face-pay-biometric-service-as-customer-base-grows) and [security](https://www.biometricupdate.com/202103/moscow-metro-to-introduce-facial-recognition-system-for-fare-payment). Officers indicated to all but one that biometrics had been used to identify them. Detentions lasted anywhere from 10 minutes to 18 hours.
Biometrics developers including [VisionLabs](https://www.biometricupdate.com/companies/visionlabs-b-v), [NtechLab](https://www.biometricupdate.com/companies/ntechlab), [Tevian](https://www.biometricupdate.com/tag/tevian) and [Synesis](https://www.biometricupdate.com/tag/synesis) have provided algorithms to Moscow’s facial recognition system, at the street or subway level, directly or through third parties. NtechLab tells Reuters it no longer supplies the Metro system as of last year.
The report notes that VisionLabs’ and NtechLab’s solutions both use chips from
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