Another Israeli tool to spy on Palestinians?
3 Min Read
A former Israeli occupation security official is currently developing another surveillance body-worn camera enabling occupation forces to scan Palestinians, even if their faces are obscured.
-
Israeli firm aims to produce a body-worn camera enabling occupation forces to scan Palestinians.
Twenty years after he planned the illegal separation wall -- ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice -- former Israeli occupation security official Dany Tirza is currently developing another way to monitor Palestinians; body cameras with facial recognition technology.
Tirza claims his company Yozmot Ltd aims to produce a body-worn camera enabling Israeli occupation police to scan Palestinians, even if their faces are obscured.
Just another tool to monitor Palestinians
Facial recognition in law enforcement has sparked global criticism, with US tech giants backing away from providing the technology to police, citing privacy risks.
The former Israeli security official said he partnered with "Tel Aviv" based company Corsight AI to develop a body-worn camera that could instantly identify people in a crowd, even if they wear masks, make-up, or camouflage, and could match them to photographs dating back to decades.
Corsight CEO Rob Watts did not confirm the collaboration but said his company was working with some 230 "integrators" worldwide who incorporated facial recognition software into cameras.
He said Australian and British police were already piloting the technology.
Palestinian digital rights activist Nadim Nashif said the use of facial recognition technology entrenched "Israel's" control over Palestinians and added to a domination of physical spaces.
The facial recognition industry was worth about $3.7 billion in 2020, according to market research firm Mordor Intelligence, which projected growth to $11.6 billion by 2026.
Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM have all declared temporary or permanent freezes on selling facial recognition programs to law enforcement.
A history of manufacturing illegal surveillance tools
This is not "Israel's" first surveillance tool to monitor Palestinians in their own land. In fact, the Israeli occupation has a history of manufacturing illegal surveillance tools to the world.
The NSO Group, founded by Israeli security intelligence veterans, manufactures the Pegasus software that can hack mobile phones and involved in several espionage cases.
Smartphones infected with the Israeli spyware would become pocket-spying devices, allowing the user to read the target's messages, look through their photos, track their location, and even turn on their camera without their knowledge.
-
Pegasus; an Israeli hacking spyware
Tens of thousands of activists, journalists, and politicians were listed as potential targets of the Pegasus spyware.
US authorities blacklisted NSO in November, and Facebook and Apple have sued the company after the spyware was discovered on devices belonging to dissidents and journalists.
In November, former Israeli occupation soldiers revealed they had photographed thousands of Palestinians to build a database for a facial recognition surveillance program, dubbed Blue Wolf, in Al-Khalil city, in the West Bank.
In 2020, Microsoft divested from Israeli facial recognition firm AnyVision, now renamed Oosto, over the company's alleged involvement in surveilling Palestinians.
