Moscow authorities monitor residents using four facial recognition technologies at once - they work simultaneously and compete with each other, the BBC Russian Service learned . The Moscow video surveillance system uses the already well-known NtechLab algorithm, as well as Tevian FaceSDK, VisionLabs Luna Platform and Kipod. The latter helps the Belarusian security forces find Lukashenka's enemies.
This became known after Electronic Moscow JSC, which is subordinate to the mayor's office, placed four contracts for technical support services for the video analytics system in mid-summer. At the same time, officials want to allocate about 800 million rubles for its maintenance in two years.
Technologies work together and compete with each other in accuracy and speed. Such an approach, the mayor's office believes, allows "to combine the strengths of each developer" and increase "recognition accuracy." Algorithms can recognize not just faces, but also the emotions of people. According to the publication, when launched in 2020, the Moscow system used only three algorithms, later Kipod joined them.
As the authorities have repeatedly stated, this is done to more effectively combat crime. But another task, more important in the current conditions, is to detain the oppositionists. It was with the help of the Moscow metro system that more than 40 people were detained on Russia Day, OVD-Info told. Journalists and activists were marked in a special way.
Kipod technology from the Russian-Belarusian company Synesis was tested by the Belarusian authorities in 2020. With its help, participants in the protests against Lukashenka were found in Minsk. Because of this, EU and US sanctions were imposed against the company and its founder Alexander Shatrov. Technology is looking for a person not only by his photo, but also by signs.
Algorithms VisionLabs Luna Platform from Visionlabs and FaceSDK from Tevian, among other things, can determine emotions: anger, fear, sadness, joy, surprise.
The cooperation of the NtechLab company (they created the FindFace technology) with the Russian security forces was already known. In June, Russian activist Artem Zinatullin published a list of names of employees, whom he called "blacksmiths of the digital Gulag." He then wrote: "There are people who build hell, piece by piece, step by step."
