Bangladesh’s Ribat Metatech to Offer Russian-made Facial Recognition Tech to Clients in APAC, Middle East

The Russian facial recognition provider NtechLab is targeting the Bangladeshi market through a new partnership with Ribat Metatech. Ribat is a software developer and systems integrator based in Bangladesh, though its client base extends throughout the Asia Pacific region and the Middle East.

NtechLab, meanwhile, has delivered facial recognition technology for clients in 23 countries that range from Southeast Asia to North Africa. The company has also proven to be extremely controversial, with privacy advocates raising serious concerns about the security and integrity of the platform. NtechLab burst onto the scene in 2016 with an app that allowed users to identify and, potentially, stalk one another on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Since then, the company’s technology has been integrated into an extensive surveillance network in Moscow, though an investigation found that regular citizens were able to gain unregulated access to facial recognition search results through an illicit pay-for-play service.

Ribat Metatech is planning to distribute NtechLab’s surveillance technology to clients in Bangladesh. NtechLab’s software has already been deployed in upwards of 400,000 cameras, more than 175,000 of which are located in Moscow.

“Partnership with NtechLab will contribute to further development of artificial intelligence systems and skilled manpower in Bangladesh,” said Ribat Metatech Managing Director Golam Sarwar. “We are sure that there will be huge interest in such systems both from the government and commercial clients.”

NtechLab believes that its solution will be particularly appealing to law enforcement agencies, since the technology can help identify people on various criminal watchlists. The company expanded to the Middle East with a new office in Abu Dhabi in August of 2021, and it provided facial recognition technology for Indian Railways later that same month. At the moment, many Russian businesses are facing heavy sanctions from the US and the European Union due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Source: The Business Standard

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April 1, 2022 – by Eric Weiss