The Russian authorities plan to install a face recognition system worth 830 million rubles on the borders with Poland, Lithuania, Kazakhstan and China, Polygon reports with reference to the public procurement portal.
Modern video analytics systems, according to the publication, will be installed at checkpoints on the borders of Russia with China (Zabaikalsk, Pogranichny and Kraskino), Poland and Lithuania (Bagrationovsk, Mamonovo, Chernyshevskoye) and Kazakhstan ( “Mashtakovo”, “Orsk”, “Sagarchin”).
In my country blocked
present tense
The system, as follows from the document, should “automatically analyze face images” to identify drivers for subsequent comparison of data about them at the entrance and exit from the checkpoint.
In doing so, the system must compare the driver’s faces in the image with all the data stored in the “biometric database or in a specific list”. About what lists or bases there is a speech, in the document it is not told. The equipment is planned to be purchased and installed by November 25, 2023.
In a commentary to the We Can Explain telegram channel, Mikhail Klimarev, director of the NPO Internet Defense Society, said that there are big problems in the Russian Federation with the database of those crossing the borders, and the new system will be much more efficient than the old one and will look like the Moscow video surveillance system.
According to the BBC Russian service, the Moscow video surveillance system, which helps to find criminals and oppositionists, uses not one, but four facial recognition algorithms at once: the previously known NtechLab (in which Rostec owns a stake), as well as Tevian FaceSDK, VisionLabs Luna Platform and Kipod.
The Russian authorities are increasingly using the facial recognition system to control people and suppress civil activity, and the number of detainees and fined after the fact is growing every year, OVD-Info notes. At the same time, most often in official documents about the use of this technology are not distributed, on the contrary, they hide it in every possible way.
Moscow remains the largest owner of cameras among the regions. According to the mayor’s office, more than 200,000 devices have been installed here – on the streets, in courtyards and entrances, as well as in the subway.
