South Korea deployed an AI-powered facial recognition system using over 10,820 CCTV cameras in Bucheon to track COVID-19 patients' movements and contacts, raising significant privacy concerns among lawmakers and human rights advocates.
In January 2021, South Korea rolled out a pilot project in Bucheon, a densely populated city near Seoul with over 800,000 residents, to use artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology for COVID-19 contact tracing. The system analyzes footage from more than 10,820 CCTV cameras to track infected persons' movements, identify close contacts, and monitor mask-wearing compliance. The nationally funded project received 1.6 billion won ($1.36 million) from the Ministry of Science and ICT, with an additional 500 million won from the city budget. The system can simultaneously track up to ten people in 5-10 minutes, significantly reducing the manual work that typically takes 30-60 minutes per person. While patients must give consent for facial recognition tracking, the system can still track them using silhouette and clothing analysis if they refuse consent. The project aims to reduce strain on overworked contact tracing teams who often work 24-hour shifts. Human rights advocates and opposition lawmakers have expressed serious concerns about privacy invasion and potential government overreach, with some calling it a 'Big Brother' surveillance system. The Ministry of Science and ICT stated it has no current plans to expand the project nationally.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that memorize and leak sensitive personal data or infer private information about individuals without their consent. Unexpected or unauthorized sharing of data and information can compromise user expectation of privacy, assist identity theft, or cause loss of confidential intellectual property.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed