Israeli military intelligence used Google Photos to identify civilians in Gaza

The Israeli military has reportedly used Google Photos to identify civilians in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Here's What We Know

According toThe New York Times, Israeli intelligence used facial recognition software to falsely identify Palestinian civilians as being affiliated with Hamas.

Israeli intelligence officers compared intelligence images with a database of Palestinian individuals they believed to have links to Hamas. The surveillance programme was initially launched to identify Israeli hostages in Gaza, but was later expanded to identify any individuals who may have ties to groups associated with armed conflicts in the region.

According to The NYT, the programme used technology from Corsight, a private Israeli company headquartered in Tel Aviv. Although the technology had its shortcomings, it was still used by Israeli forces, even though there were cases of misidentification.

Another source of civilian identification was Google Photos. According to Israeli officers, they uploaded data containing known individuals of interest to Google and used the app's photo search function to identify them among surveillance footage.

However, it is noted that this surveillance programme has not been fully effective. There have been cases where civilians have been falsely detained, as in the case of the poet Mosab Abu Toha, who claims to have no connection to Hamas and was unaware of the Israeli intelligence programme. The case demonstrates how technology can cause unlawful detention and interference with individuals' privacy.

A Google spokesperson reiterated that Google Photos is designed to organise personal photos and is not intended to identify unknown individuals in images.

Source: Engadget