Russian police track protesters and leak data to black market

Russian authorities are using facial recognition to track opposition protesters to their homes and arrest them, though the cameras are often turned off or "malfunctioning" when state security agents are suspected of attacks on or murders of  journalists and opposition activists. The data is gathered into a central database and is sold cheaply by corrupt officials on Russia's "probiv"  black market in data. Facial recognition software, produced by local companies such as NtechLab, is used in 70% of crime investigations. Moscow has more than 189,000 cameras, and there are 12,300 cameras on the Moscow Metro.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russia-facial-recognition-surveillance-navalny/2021/04/16/4b97dc80-8c0a-11eb-a33e-da28941cb9ac_story.html

Writer: Robyn Dixon

Publication: Washington Post