NtechLab & FindFace
in the media

Many dating site and app operators want to ensure the authenticity of the people signing up for their services because, unfortunately, a significant number of online daters have been catfished by scammers pretending to be someone they’re not. Dating platforms can help give users more peace of mind thanks to FindFace, a facial recognition software that can authenticate user photos and videos. Unlike similar software, FindFace can identify users in databases of thousands — or millions — of faces.

As Russian cities go into lockdown to try to contain coronavirus, Moscow is using the latest technology to keep track of residents. City officials are using a giant network of tens of thousands of cameras — installed with facial recognition software — which they plan to couple with digital passes on people’s mobile phones. It’s prompted concern about whether such widespread surveillance will ever be rolled back.

The smart cameras bought by Moscow authorities from the NtechLab start-up company are capable of recognizing faces partially hidden under masks or headgear, a spokesperson for the company told TASS.

A vast and contentious network of facial recognition cameras keeping watch over Moscow is now playing a key role in the battle against the spread of the coronavirus in Russia.

Moscow is the latest major city to introduce live facial recognition cameras to its streets, with Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announcing that the technology is operating «on a mass scale» earlier this month, according to a report from Russian business paper Vedomosti. Moscow started trialing live facial recognition in 2017, using technology from Russian firm NtechLab to scan footage from the Russian capital’s network of 160,000 CCTV cameras.

Built on several tens of thousands of cameras and what’s claimed to be one of the most advanced facial recognition systems on the planet, Moscow has been quietly switching on a massive surveillance project this month. The software that’s helping monitor all those faces is FindFace, the product of NtechLab, a company that some reports claimed would bring “an end to anonymity” with its FindFace app.

Rostelecom Group subsidiary Netris and NtechLab have agreed to a partnership to add face recognition to cameras deployed to Netris' smart city customers. NtechLab’s FindFace biometric algorithm is now up and running on 250 video streams from Tyumen city surveillance cameras.

NtechLab CEO Alex Minin took part in a discussion with The Dubai Business Women Council on ways to foster cooperation and develop networking mechanisms with business communities as a part of a high-level European delegation.