exclusive
In order to enforce the headscarf requirement, Iran relies on surveillance and probably also uses facial recognition software for this purpose. One supplier of cameras was Bosch. However, the company denies that the devices can be used for biometric facial recognition.
In June last year, an opposition group said it hacked more than 5,000 public surveillance cameras in the Tehran area. The hackers published a video of the action on social media platforms. It shows the software interface from Bosch, which is apparently used to control cameras to monitor intersections and expressways in Tehran. Are these Bosch cameras still used for law enforcement today?
According to a recently published study by the human rights organization Amnesty International, road traffic surveillance is used in particular to enforce the headscarf requirement. Iranian women tell human rights lawyer Raha Bahreini and her team that they received a text message shortly after crossing an intersection or getting out of their car. They were informed that the camera recorded that their headscarf did not fit properly.
“The authorities have expanded their surveillance system with facial recognition technology. Women identified without a headscarf face legal action,” said Amnesty International’s Bahreini in an interview with the ARD-World mirror. After receiving a traffic ticket via SMS, many women have to hand in their car for several weeks, often resulting in bans on leaving the country and fines.
Surveillance with European technology?
After several weeks of unsuccessful attempts, a group of opposition figures is ready to meet reporters from the SWR to meet for an online interview, on condition that you remain anonymous. The group tells reporters that cameras from companies in the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany are being used on Iranian roads. The network of surveillance cameras in Iran is extremely dense. A map of downtown Tehran created by activists that SWR Apparently shows that there is a camera on practically every street corner. Cameras from the Chinese company Tiandy are the most common. And according to the activists, cameras from Bosch, which are used for traffic surveillance, can also be found again and again.
On request, Bosch confirms that the camera model seen in the hacker videos was delivered to Iran in small numbers between 2016 and 2018. But Bosch was not directly involved in the traffic surveillance project. And the company writes to that SWRthat so-called intelligent tracking is possible with this camera model.
The activists with whom the SWR could say that with such a tracking technique, the regime could tell if people were gathering for a demonstration. “If more than five or ten people appear in the camera image at the same time, an alarm is sent to the nearest police station and then security forces show up. The regime is already using this technique,” they say.
Bosch training at Tehran University
To the SWR There is a document that describes how a training course was organized by “Bosch Security” and an Iranian sales partner at Khatam University in Tehran in 2017. The topic was, among other things, “face recognition”, i.e. “face recognition”, face detection “face detection” and the intelligent tracking of objects. According to the paper, the trainer was one of Bosch’s sales managers for the Middle East.
On SWRinquiry confirms that Bosch delivered a total of around 8,000 security cameras to Iran between 2016 and 2018. At the same time, the company writes that their cameras cannot be used for fully automatic face recognition because the software for biometric face recognition is not preinstalled on the cameras. Bosch’s letter goes on to say: “No Bosch employee has ever conducted face recognition training at Khatam University.” However, the company points out that all photos or films created by a camera can be evaluated live or afterwards using server-based face recognition software.
The activists say such video analytics software was shipped to Iran by Danish security firm Milestone Systems. On SWR-Inquiry, the company confirms that until 2019 software solutions were sold to the Islamic Republic. Among other things, the video management software XProtect, an open platform that can be used for various purposes. The company’s website states that XProtect can also be used to compare faces. The Danish company’s software can be combined with surveillance cameras from different manufacturers – including cameras from Bosch.
No Violation of Sanctions
When asked, Bosch wrote that the company had no influence on how the cameras would be used because it had never supplied end customers in Iran. Since 2019, the industrial company has broken off all business relations with the country and has complied with the applicable export regulations for camera sales. Nevertheless, Amnesty International’s Bahreini believes companies like Bosch have a responsibility: “Companies have an obligation to fulfill their duty of care and ensure that the technologies they sell are not used to commit human rights violations.”
Women in Iran continue to be oppressed and probably also persecuted with the help of intelligent technology. In the Iranian parliament, which is dominated by hardliners, there is currently a draft law – the so-called “headscarf – and chastity law”. This provides for even harsher penalties than before.
Shima Ghousheh works as a lawyer in Tehran, specializing in women’s rights. She is one of the few willing to speak openly about the government’s plans. She says so ARD-Weltspiegel that according to the new draft, women could be accused of “corruption on earth”. Then execution could actually threaten if women do not wear the headscarf. And according to Ghousheh, the draft law goes one step further: “Every citizen can take photos and videos of women who violate the regulations and send them directly to the responsible authorities – these recordings should then serve as evidence in court.”
All video recordings, including those from security cameras, will then be permitted, but until now they were not officially. If women in Iran are put on trial with it in the future, it could also be done with the help of technology “Made in Germany”.
Cooperation: Franziska Ehrenfeld