Face surveillance has become a reality for the Israeli Military as it used facial recognition in the Gaza strip for surveillance which is a privacy concern.
Palestinian poet detained because of his past publications (his image) which were quite harmless device after being recognized by the system despite not being tied with any militants.
Some of the proponents raise concern about abuse of the technology and rules of thumb are need to prevent abuse.
As the conflict continues in Gaza, the Israeli army has already begun to use facial recognition skills in its daily surveillance program, leading to worries about privacy and possible false alarms. This indicates to that this technique has been predominantly unappreciated and its consequences on the people of Palestinians have come under control too.
Facial recognition program unveiled
A recent disclosure bears concerning that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has been operating a facial recognition program in Gaza since the end of last year. This program, Project Nebula, aggressively pushed forward by the intelligence branch of the IDF, Unit 8200, in cooperation with Corsight, a private Israeli company, works toward pinpointing and getting rid of among the Palestinians ones of interest.
The program considered to be state of the art utilizes photography of faces from crowds and drone footage through the use of artificial intelligence algorithms. Nevertheless, the issue of accuracy is also among the technical drawbacks of biometric technology with cases where civilians are identified as militants besides their wanted images being discovered. Notwithstanding its flaws, it is being upgraded to support Israeli officers in finding hostages and also to detect individuals involved in Hamas and other groups hidden in the Gaza Strip as well.
Among the victims of this facial recognition program is Mosab Abu Toha, a 31 year olld Palestinian poet, an example. Abu Toha was those days detained and interrogated ruthlessly by some Israeli officers after he mistakenly visited the vicinity of the facial recognition cameras at a military checkpoint. The lack of connection to terrorist networks was not taken into concern and he was identified as a high-risk individual due to the data provided in the system.
International concerns and response
The news that Israel uses face recognition technology for Gaza raises an alarm worldwide, especially if this technology is widely used, mistreated and people’s privacy violated. More specifically, the humanization of Palestinians and to avoid wrong targeting is one of the concerns with this program.
The tech leverages features like looking even foreheads, eye to the ear, and facial profile, but it still has some barriers to get over. The facial recognition used by Israeli officers has been found to be ineffective where faces may have been partially or fully covered or injured since it ends up with results of false positives and mistakes in identification.
The demands for fairness and control go with the territory.
Due to the occurrence of these events, there have been the voices with arguments of having transparent and accountable rules on the use of facial recognition technologies by the Israeli soldiers in Gaza. Critics are adamant that such dominating surveillance techniques should be strictly monitored to mitigate external exploitation and respect individual rights.
As tension keeps up in the Gaza Strip, there is a new dimension of Israel’s facial recognition program, which is reported as an add-on to the ongoing conflict. While Israeli officials claim that the procedures are solely for the maintenance of security purposes, doubts have arisen on the fact that the same can lead to civilians’ humanitarian concerns as a result of abuse. The question rages on, while it is crucial to mention that uses of this technology in the war zone should be balanced and responsible.
