Surveillance company run by ex-spies is harvesting Facebook photos

Secret surveillance software created by a former Israeli intelligence officer is harvesting Facebook photos. The firm behind it is taking profile images from the social network, YouTube and other sites to build a huge facial recognition database. Its creators say the software could lead to the identification of terror suspects, captured in promotional and other material posted online. News of the controversial service is causing alarm among privacy activists as Facebook scrambles to deal with its ongoing data scandal. Secret surveillance software created by a former Israeli intelligence officer is harvesting Facebook photos. It was revealed last month the company shared the private data of up to 87 million users with the political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica. Face-Int is now owned by analytics firm Verint, who acquired it in 2017 from creators Terrogence, a surveillance company founded by onetime Israeli secret agent Shai Arbel. Both companies have reportedly supplied the US government and its security agencies, including the NSA, with cutting edge spy technologies. The facial recognition database is said to contain the facial profiles of thousands of terror suspects'harvested from such online sources as YouTube, Facebook and open and closed forums all over the globe', according to Terrogence's website. Experts are concerned that the company's efforts extend beyond this remit, however, and into the political realm. 'It raises the stakes of face recognition - it intensifies the potential negative consequences,' Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Forbes.