Ukraine uses facial recognition to identify fallen Russian soldiers and then sends those photos to relatives of the dead soldiers. In this way, the families of 582 fallen Russians were already contacted. The American newspaper reports that The Washington Post†
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said last month that Ukraine is using the controversial software Clearview AI “to search social networks for profiles of Russian soldiers based on (images) of their bodies, to report their deaths to friends and relatives” .
More than 340 employees of five different Ukrainian government departments can now use Clearview AI for free, reports Hoan Ton-That, CEO of the software company. Since the start of the Russian invasion, Ukrainian authorities have already scanned the faces of more than 8,600 Russians killed in action. A group of volunteer hackers and activists led by the Ukrainian government has used these images to inform the families of 582 Russians of the death of their loved one, including sending them photos of corpses left behind.
Psychological Warfare
Fedorov said last month the action was aimed at “debunking the myth of a ‘special operation’ in which ‘no conscript participates’ and where ‘no one dies'”. In this way, Ukraine hopes to stir up resistance in Russia against the Russian military campaign.
However, some military and IT analysts speak of “psychological warfare” and fear the approach could backfire. After all, instead of directing their anger at the Russian regime coordinating the war from within the Kremlin, the mothers receiving the horrific photos may be outraged at what the Ukrainians have done to their boys.
Ukraine is also using the technology to identify people detained in Russia and search their social media accounts for suspicious information, including their contacts.
However, the software is not foolproof, and experts fear that some families will be misinformed about the death of their relative.
Privacy International, a non-governmental organization that defends the right to privacy worldwide, is calling on Clearview to stop their work in Ukraine. According to the company, “the potential consequences, such as mistakenly designating civilians as soldiers, are too horrific to tolerate.” However, Ton-That states that the Clearview search engine is accurate.
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