South Korea is reportedly set to launch a trial project employing AI, facial recognition, and thousands of CCTV cameras to track the movement of coronavirus-infected individuals, regardless of their privacy concerns.

This initiative in Bucheon, one of the densely populated cities of the nation, will be operational in January to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, similar to how governments throughout the world have turned to new technologies and extended legal power to contain the spread.

One of the Bucheon officials claimed that this method will aid the overburdened tracing teams in a city with a population of more than 800,000 people, by allowing them to work more efficiently and precisely.

It is worth noting that S. Korea already has a high-tech contact tracing system that collects personal data like credit card records, cellphone location data, and CCTV footage. However, the country continues to rely on a huge number of epidemiological investigators.

Jang Deog-cheon, mayor of Bucheon, expressed that such a method would make tracing faster as it can monitor up to ten people at once in five to ten minutes.

It intends to address the fact that tracking teams rely primarily on COVID-19 patients' testimony, which isn't always accurate concerning their activities and whereabouts, Jang added.

Ministry of Science and ICT do not plan to expand the project nationally, and they only aim to automate the part of manual tracing. Bucheon received USD 1.36 million from the authority and allocated around USD 423,000 from local budget for the system's construction.

Although existing invasive track and trace measures have seen wide acceptance, human rights organizations and various South Korean MPs are concerned that the government will utilize the gathered data beyond the pandemic.

To address privacy issues, Bucheon officials claim that that the technology will place a mosaic over the faces of everyone who isn't a subject.

Patients must still consent to face recognition tracking, but even if they do not, the system may monitor them based on their silhouette and apparel in compliance with Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act.

Source: https://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/next-gen-technologies/s-korea-to-test-ai-powered-facial-recognition-to-track-covid-19-cases/88248205