NYC facial recognition startup scraping social media to identify protestors

Outrage and biometric data privacy compliance concerns related to the use of images scraped from social media by Clearview AI led to an agreement by that company not to license its software outside of the law enforcement sector. But a company using a similar approach to facial recognition algorithm training and collecting reference data is now participating in the hunt for student protestors who may have violated the conditions of their study visas, the Associated Press reports.

The use of facial recognition software made with thousands of photos scraped from social media accounts by private individuals in the United States to identify protestors as targets for deportation has caught the attention of American rights advocates.

The NesherAI software is developed by Stellar Technologies, a startup based in New York City. Stellar Founder Eliyahu Hawila says his software is intended to identify people who support the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas, and people committing assault.

Hawila has also circulated the results of his facial recognition searches to advocacy groups, leading to accusations of doxing.

The company describes its software as “an intelligence and mass surveillance project powered by AI, designed to support law enforcement and community security organizations in tracking terrorists, threat actors, and violent criminals. It is also marketed towards NGOs, activist groups, companies, and universities for profiling individuals with malicious intent, terrorist affiliations and online criminal behavior.”

A video demo shows a probe photo being matched to candidate reference images. The user clicks on a reference image, which brings up an employee profile of an individual in a company website.

Self-described “Zionist” group Betar says it has been using NesherAI facial recognition to identify protestors, and had named Mahmoud Khalil as one of the names it submitted to U.S. officials investigating allegations of anti-Semitic behavior by people in the country on student visas.

The Anti-Defamation League lists Betar as an extremist group.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  NesherAI  |  Stellar Technologies  |  United States  |  video surveillance