NtechLab, the company behind Moscow’s facial-recognition system, has launched pilot versions of similar systems in ten major Russian cities, «Ъ».
One of them is Nizhny Novgorod. The system will be rolled out into a video-surveillance network of three thousand cameras located at bus stops, in public places and on building intercoms.
A portion of the cameras equipped with facial recognition is planned to go live by the end of 2020.
The system will be used to track down criminals and quarantine violators.
It is not yet known how much the installation in Nizhny Novgorod will cost. NtechLab has also not disclosed other cities where it plans to launch pilot projects.
In September NtechLab attracted more than 1 billion rubles from the Russian Direct Investment Fund, as well as “leading sovereign wealth funds of the Middle East”.
With the raised funds, the company intends to begin expansion into the markets of the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
In April, Rostec head Sergei Chemezov proposed installing NtechLab’s facial-recognition system for the heads of Russian regions.
For more on how the system works, and how in different countries in the pandemic era they deploy citizen-tracking tools, read ForkLog’s exclusive.
Security before freedom? How governments are deploying mass surveillance tools under the pretext of the coronavirus
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