The Israeli military is using facial recognition smartphone technology to compile a database of Palestinian residents in the West Bank, according to an investigative report published in the Washington Post on Monday.
The app, dubbed Blue Wolf, alerts soldier whether individuals should be detained based on existing information about them, the report stated.
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Palestinian students and teachers waiting for Israeli soldiers to allow them to cross a military checkpoint near the Jewish settlement of Beit Hadassa in the West Bank city of Hebron
(Photo: AFP)
Described as the army's secret "Facebook for Palestinians" by a former trooper, soldiers competed in photographing residents for the app, with prizes for the most pictures collected.
Although the total number of photographed residents is unclear, it's most likely in the thousands, according to the Post.
The paper quoted a soldier recounting how his unit was tasked with taking as many pictures as possible in the city of Hebron, using old army smartphones.
In addition, the military installed face-scanning cameras in Hebron to identify Palestinians, as well as provide real-time monitoring of the city.
"I wouldn’t feel comfortable if they used it in the mall in [my hometown], let’s put it that way," one soldier told the Post. "People worry about fingerprinting, but this is that several times over."
Facial recognition technology has been banned by at least a dozen U.S. cities, and several social media companies have moved away from using facial recognition programs.
Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system because of “many concerns about the place of facial recognition technology in society," The New York Times reported.