Controversy rises over AI-based facial recognition program used to track COVID-19 patients

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Thu, November 30, 2023 | 01:09

Health & Science

Controversy rises over AI-based facial recognition program used to track COVID-19 patients

Posted : 2021-12-20 15:50

Updated : 2021-12-20 18:42

Officials of the Guro District Office in Seoul work in the CCTV surveillance camera monitoring room of the district office, May 13, 2020. The photo above is unrelated to the article. Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-suk

By Lee Hyo-jin

Controversy is arising over a city's pilot project to combine AI-based facial recognition technology with thousands of surveillance cameras installed in the city to use in the contact tracing for COVID-19 patients.

While the city government expects that the new system will help carry out swifter and more accurate epidemiological investigations, civic groups have expressed concerns over breaches of privacy and infringements of the personal information of infected people.

Bucheon City Government in Gyeonggi Province is set to launch the project next month with funding from the Ministry of Science ICT. The local government received 1.6 billion won from the ministry, and allocated its own budget of 500 million won.

As one of the most populated cities in the metropolitan area with more than 800,000 residents, Bucheon has the highest density of CCTV surveillance cameras in the country, according to city officials. With nearly 10,000 installed, there are 123 cameras per square kilometer.

"The pilot project, if launched successfully, will drastically reduce the time and resources needed for the contact tracing of COVID-19 patients," a city official in the Smart City Division, who is in charge of the project, told The Korea Times.

The AI-powered technology will help the epidemiological investigators, who currently spend hours analyzing credit card information, phone records and visitor logs at multiuse facilities.

The official added, "Not only are the investigators burdened by a heavy workload, but there have also been problems, as some patients give false testimony of their movements and whereabouts."

Currently, it takes between 30 minutes to one hour to collect contact tracing data for one patient, but with the new technology, investigators should be able to analyze the data of 10 patients in just five to 10 minutes, according to the official.

Medical workers guide people at a coronavirus testing center in Dongdaemun District, Seoul, Monday. Yonhap

But the facial recognition system, which uses sensitive biometric data, has raised privacy concerns, as well as the possible mishandling of personal information by the local government.

Earlier in October, the Ministry of Justice came under fire for handing over about 170 million facial images of Korean and foreign nationals collected at the airport to private companies, without the consent of those recorded, as a part of its project to build an AI identification tracking system.

Regarding such concerns, the city official said, "The facial recognition technology will be used only upon the consent of the patient, and access to the data will be limited strictly to epidemiological investigators."

But civic groups view the situation otherwise.

"Considering the sensitivity of biometric data, it should be retained and used in a very limited manner. But it is doubtful whether the ICT ministry and the city government have reviewed the project thoroughly based on the Personal Information and Protection Act," said Cha Yeo-kyung, the executive director of the Institute for Digital Rights.

"Also, there is no guarantee that city officials won't use the data beyond COVID-19-related purposes," she said.

According to Bucheon City's plan, its long-term goal for the project is to create a database to build an advanced AI-based system to prevent the future spread of infectious diseases.

Cha said, "This plan is highly worrisome, as it leaves room for the authorities to hand the data over to the private sector."

lhj@koreatimes.co.kr