Tech companies in China and U.S. are vying to sell facial recognition software for UAE spy program

As lawmakers, citizens, and company’s debate the use of facial recognition software in the U.S., tech giants in America and China have been busy hawking products to eager surveillance states abroad.

Among the burgeoning markets, according to a report by Buzzfeed News, are monarchies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), particularly in Dubai, where political leaders have often jailed citizens and journalists that they deem to be political dissidents. 

Critics of the UAE include Human Rights Watch (HRW) who has frequently derided the country for its authoritarian tendencies.

Private companies like IBM are looking to governments accused of violating human rights as a market for facial recognition software. File photo

‘UAE authorities have launched a sustained assault on freedom of expression and association since 2011,’ says HRW in its analysis.

‘UAE residents who have spoken about human rights issues are at serious risk of arbitrary detention, imprisonment, and torture. Many are serving long prison terms or have left the country under pressure.’

Those practices have reportedly not prevented some private companies from around the world from offering their services to regimes in the UAE, acccording to Buzzfeed. 

At a recent conference on artificial intelligence held in Dubai, representatives from Chinese technology company Huawei — which has recently been banned in the U.S. — IBM said they viewed the UAE as a promising market for facial recognition and analysis software.

In a statement from IBM, a spokesperson said all sales of the company’s facial recognition are vetted by the company.

‘Robust processes in place to ensure potential client engagements are consistent with our values, as well as US and local laws,’ a spokesperson told Buzzfeed. 

As those companies look to crack markets in the UAE, cities like Dubai have aggressively pursued the formation of a holistic surveillance program called Oyoon, which aims to install tens of thousands of cameras and microphones across the city that will monitor citizens.

To achieve its goal — which Dubai said will reduce crime and traffic accidents — the city is looking to artificially intelligent facial recognition software that can not only scan the faces of potential suspects but also interpret their behavior and voices, says Buzzfeed.

Beyond that, software from the likes of Huawei and IBM also have the capbility to assess crowds in real-time including the gathering’s size and what subjects might be wearing. This would theoretically allow law enforcement to respond more quickly to political protests, potentially in an effort to suppress them.

In 2018 during Oyoon’s first year, police in Dubai said the program directly aided the arrest of more than 300 people.

China has arguably the most robust surveillance system worldwide, and usera facial recognition to scan the faces of millions of people every day

As access to facial recognition software grows along with its sophistication, activist groups and lawmakers have begun to draw boundaries around where and when the technology can be implemented. 

In San Francisco, the technology was banned for use by law enforcement — a legal precedent in the U.S. — and other legislation has bubbled up on the federal level that would restrict entities’ use of facial recognition data without user consent. 

In the private sector, however, purveyors of the technology have been mostly indifferent toward the ethical quandaries regarding the sale and development of facial recognition software. 

This month, in a vote by shareholders, Amazon overwhelmingly rejected a ban on the sale of its facial recognition software, Rekognition, despite concerns from some of its board members that the technology may be misused by authoritarian governments and law enforcement or erode personal privacy.

How do Chinese police catch criminals with facial-recognition sunglasses?

In China, the police are now wearing sunglasses equipped with facial-recognition technology to catch criminal suspects. 

Transport police in Zhengzhou, central China, were given the cutting-edge gadgets in 2018 to screen passengers and spot suspects in crowds at train stations.

A camera connected to the smartphone-like shades would allow the officers to take mugshots of the individual in question and compare them to a database back at headquarters.

Transport police in Zhengzhou, central China were given the cutting-edge gadgets in February to screen passengers and spot suspects in crowds at train stations

The system would then bring up the suspect’s personal information including name, ethnicity, gender and address. All the information would be transferred back to the officer’s glasses.

The glasses can also tell officers whether or not the targets are on the run from the law, the address of any hotel they are staying at and information related to their internet usage.

This is part of China’s efforts to build a digital surveillance system that uses a variety of biometric data – from photos and iris scans to fingerprints – to keep close tabs on the movements of its 1.4 billion population.

The technology has since allowed police in Zhengzhou to nab seven suspects.

They were accused of crimes ranging from human trafficking to hit-and-runs. 

Another 26 people were caught using fake IDs, according to the state-owned People’s Daily, quoting the city’s police department. 

The facial recognition sunglasses system was expanded to Beijing in March as well, particularly at highway checkpoints on the city’s outskirts.

The smart glasses can pick up facial features and car registration plates, and match them in real-time with a ‘blacklist’ of suspects, according to Reuters.

The rapid development of the technology has triggered a demand for commercial applications as well, with gyms, restaurants and even public toilets getting in on the facial recognition game.