EXPOSED:Mysterious Company in Berlin Caught Using Facebook to Build a Facial-recognition Database
Recently, the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has been facing lots of charges over handling personal data of his social media users.
Despite Facebook moves to tighten up it security, a mysterious company in Berlin, identified as Terrogence, a surveillance company, who uses facial recognition technology at Suedkreuz station,has been caught of using social networking sites including Facebook and YouTube to build a giant facial-recognition database.
According to Forbes, the company which is own by a former Israeli intelligence officers, has been on operation for over 5 years.
It was discovered that the database is part of the company’s facial-recognition service Face-Int. It contains the faces of thousands of terrorism suspects, harvested from as many as 35,000 videos and photos.
The report also have it that Terrogence, along with it parent company Verint, both supply intelligence technology to American government, including the NSA and Navy. They also give the government access to information on terrorist weaponry and tactics that the company gathers through social media.
Terrogence, website reads;
“Terrogence actively monitors and collects online profiles and facial images of terrorists, criminals and other individuals believed to pose a threat to aviation security, immigration and national security.
“The Face-Int database houses the profiles of thousands of suspects harvested from such online sources as YouTube, Facebook, and open and closed forums all over the globe.”
The company’s brochure also states that;
“Terrogence specializes in cultivating and operating virtual entities in online spaces, that access social media platforms legitimately and act naturally, gaining trust, forming connections, and ultimately collecting valuable intelligence.” That is to say the cimpany spies on you through fake profiles.
Online reports have it that earlier this month, Verint, introduced an additional facial-recognition product called FaceDetect. In the new product, it identifies individuals, and also allows operators to instantaneously add suspects to watch lists.
In addition to this, a former Terrogence staffer revealed through her LinkedIn profile to have been involved in investigations of “political and social groups” via social media as well. That is to say Terrogence’s research may not be limited to terrorism-related intelligence, experts reveal it could be looking at you, too.
