Google declined to comment after reports spread that its facial recognition technology was used to create a list of Israeli targets in Gaza, insisting that its services are free and available to everyone.

Google spokesman Joshua Cruz said, “Google Photos is a free product available to a wide range of audiences that helps organize their photos by collecting similar faces so that people can be categorized in order to easily find old photos. The product does not provide identities for unknown people in the photos. According to what was reported by the American website “The Intercept”.

"Google Photos"

In late March, a New York Times report revealed that the Israeli occupation army was using two facial recognition tools, one of which was “Google Photos.”

An Israeli source said that the tool is more efficient than the other and helped the army create a list of targets for those who allegedly participated in the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, which was launched by the Palestinian resistance deep in the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip on the seventh of last October.

The large-scale facial monitoring program that Israel deployed in Gaza enabled the Israeli occupation army to identify thousands of residents of the Strip, many of whom were subjected to arrest, imprisonment, interrogation, and torture.

Face detection

The program is managed by the Military Intelligence Unit in the Israeli army, and relies on technologies developed by the Israeli company "Coorsight" and those available in "Google Photos" to identify faces from photos of crowds or from photos taken by Israeli drones, according to the "New York Times."

In this context, Anna Bacciarelli, associate technical director at Human Rights Watch, says: Given the context in which Israeli forces are using this technology, amid widespread, ongoing, and systematic deprivation of human rights in Gaza, I hope that Google will take appropriate action.

Sources: Al-Arabi