Russian companies found to have built facial recognition ethnicity analytics

An investigation by video surveillance company IVPM discovered that Russian technology companies AxxonSoft, Tevian, VisionLabs and NtechLab had built facial recognition powered tools to identify people based on their race or ethnicity. 

The finding prompted digital rights advocates to express concerns that facial recognition technologies could be used to deepen existing racial and ethnic discrimination in the country, and elsewhere.

According to Reuters, there was no indication that Russian police had targeted minorities using the firms' software.

In response, AxxonSoft disabled its ethnicity analytics feature, claiming it was not interested in promoting technologies that could be a basis for ethnic segregation, Tevian denied that current uses of its tool by police could entrench discrimination, and VisionLabs stated its ethnicity analytics software was developed for internal research purposes only.

The Russian government is a customer of each company; NtechLab is partially funded and owned by the Russian government.

Research, advocacy 🧮

• https://ipvm.com/reports/russia-ethnicity-analytics

News, commentary, analysis 🗞️

• https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-tech-race-idUSKCN2EB0BC

• https://www.biometricupdate.com/202107/ethnicity-recognition-found-among-russian-face-biometrics-providers-features

• https://www.voanews.com/europe/racist-facial-recognition-sparks-ethical-concerns-russia-analysts-say

• https://www.wionews.com/videos/russian-firms-using-ai-tools-to-classify-faced-based-on-race-396191

• https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/10/02/russia-expands-facial-recognition-despite-privacy-concerns

• https://www.codastory.com/authoritarian-tech/russia-facial-recognition-networks/