- Chris Vallance
- BBC Technology Correspondent
Image source,GETTY IMAGES
In 2012, an American soldier was collecting biometric information from a villager.
“We used to walk into villages and ask people to register this biometric data system,” said Peter Kiernan, a veteran of the US Marine Corps Special Operations Command.
“The device is about 12 inches x 6 inches wide. It scans their fingerprints, scans their retina, and takes a picture of them.”
For Kilnan, the past week has been very busy. While in Afghanistan, he was in charge of 12 interpreters. When I talked with him, some of them were still in Afghanistan, and he was trying to help them leave.
For those who have worked for the U.S. military, leaving is a top priority.
A UN document recently reviewed by the BBC shows that the Taliban is stepping up its search for people who have served or have worked with Nato and U.S. forces.
Some people believe that the large amount of biometric data collected by the US military and the Afghan government may put those facing retaliation in danger.
Brian Dooley, a senior adviser to the activist organization Human Rights First, told the BBC podcast “Tech Tent” that although there is little known information, “a The most well-founded guess is that (the Taliban) has already obtained or will get a lot of biometric data.”
U.S. soldiers such as Kilnan will use a handheld device called HIIDE (Handheld Interdepartmental Identity Authentication Device) to add the identity information of Afghans into a U.S. biometric information database.
Kilnan said that this helps to identify the bomber and can also be used to identify contractors and locals working with the U.S. military.
The military’s initial goal was to cover 80% of the population (25 million people) on this system, but the actual figure is believed to be far below this level.
Image source,GETTY IMAGES
In 2019, fingerprints were being read in a polling station.
On August 18, the news website Intercept reported that some sources in the US military said that some HIIDE equipment had fallen into the hands of the Taliban. A Kabul resident told Reuters that the Taliban was using a “biometric machine” to conduct door-to-door inspections.
An Afghan official told NewScientist magazine that the biometric infrastructure is now in the hands of the Taliban.
Kilnan is currently a member of The Truman National Security Project (The Truman National Security Project), a US think tank. He said that it is possible for the Taliban to obtain some of the coalition’s biometric data, but it is uncertain whether they have sufficient technical knowledge. Use it.
The journalist and author Annie Jacobsen, who has researched military biometric technology, believes that even with HIIDE machines, the Taliban are unlikely to have access to the vast amounts of data collected by the coalition.
She also said that out of consideration to prevent “certain corrupt officials” from providing clues with possible criminals, the alliance’s partners in Afghanistan did not receive bulk sharing of these data.
She said that the data collected by the HIIDE device is not stored in Afghanistan, but in the Pentagon’s Automated Biometrics Identification System. Because of the complexity of this system, she called it “systems of systems.”
Jacobson believes that at the practical level, social media may be an easier source of information for the Taliban.
The BBC has asked the US Department of Defense for comment.
Image source,Getty Images
Civilian data
The Afghan government also uses biometric technology.
Afghanistan’s National Statistics and Information Authority has processed more than 6 million e-Tazkira applications, including fingerprints, iris scans, and photographs.
In the 2019 elections, biometric technologies such as face recognition were also used when checking voter registration.
Afghanistan has even launched a business registration system and plans to collect student biometric information from Islamic schools.
In 2016, an Afghan broadcasting company reported that the Taliban used a biometric reader in a violent ambush that killed 12 people to identify people who were members of the security forces among bus passengers.