AI unicorn Megvii not behind app used for surveillance in Xinjiang, says human rights group
- Human Rights Watch said Megvii’s Face++ code found in mobile app used by Xinjiang authorities was ‘inoperable’
Megvii, the developer of facial recognition software Face++ used widely in China, is not behind a mobile app that forms part of the mass surveillance infrastructure set up by authorities in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
New York-based HRW said in a correction at the end of a report released on Tuesday that its review of the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP) app, one of the mass surveillance systems used by the police and other authorities in the region, found that Megvii “seems not to have collaborated” in the development of that app.
The human rights advocacy group also confirmed that the Face++ code found in the app’s login function was “inoperable” and never actively used.
The findings backtrack from the HRW report’s initial publication early last month, when it said the IJOP app used a “facial recognition functionality by Face++” to “check whether the photo on the ID matches the person’s face or for cross-checking pictures on two different documents”.