Microsoft Declines Government Requests for Facial Recognition Software

Microsoft has rejected government requests for access to its facial recognition software. The company aims to prevent misuse of this technology and does not want to sell it for surveillance purposes.

“We will not sell facial recognition services for the purposes of mass surveillance anywhere in the world,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s President, in an interview with Reuters.

Call for Stricter Regulation

Microsoft is advocating for stricter regulation of facial recognition technology, which is used in China to track ethnic minorities. The company supports tightening the rules around the distribution of such software. According to Smith, Microsoft is also against a complete ban on this technology.

“It’s hard to innovate if you can’t use something, and it’s hard to learn if you can’t develop,” he noted.

Challenges with Biometric Data Collection

The Unified Biometric System (UBS) is facing challenges with data collection. The last time Rostelecom disclosed the number of collected templates was in October 2018, when data from about 2,000 people had been gathered. According to a source at a top-20 bank cited by RBC, only about 15,000 biometric data samples from clients have been collected in the system over the past year.