A new report from the Human Rights Watch details the ways in which the Taliban is harvesting biometric surveillance tech and databases to not only surveil Afghan citizens but also retaliate against perceived enemies. The tools at the regime’s disposal now include troves of “iris scans, fingerprints, photographs, occupations, home addresses, and names of relatives,” among other personal details. And guess who supplied them with all this invaluable information?
“Foreign governments such as the United States, and international institutions, including United Nations agencies and the World Bank, funded and in some cases built or helped to build vast systems to hold the biometric and other personal data of various groups of Afghans for official purposes,” explains the report, adding that “in some cases, these systems were built for the former Afghan government. In others, they were designed for foreign governments and militaries.”
