Georgia purchases surveillance cameras capable of facial recognition

The cameras transmit information to Chinese servers.

In Georgia, the Public Security Management Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs purchased 30 Chinese Dahua CCTV cameras capable of recognizing people's faces and emotions. They were purchased the day after the law was passed banning protesters from covering their faces, Radio Tavisupleba reported.

It is noted that the Ministry of Internal Affairs purchased the cameras under a simplified contract, paying 85 thousand lari (almost 30 thousand dollars). 

The department explained the purchase by saying that 115 cameras were damaged during mass protests, and therefore their urgent replacement is required to “fight crime and increase public safety”.

These cameras are able to recognize a person's face, body and emotions (anger, boredom, hatred, fear, surprise, calm, joy, confusion), their gender and age, determine whether a person is wearing a mask and transport means.

It is noted that earlier three employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs submitted a report according to which 85 video cameras were damaged from November 28 to December 4, including 81 static and 4 controlled Dahua cameras.

Such cameras were previously used in Ukraine. As’found the investigation of “Schemes”, Dahua cameras transmit information to servers controlled by the Chinese manufacturer, and are also vulnerable to hacker attacks. Import of products of both companies into the USA is prohibited, because it threatens national security. According to the head of the NGO “Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine”, China may share the information received with Russia.