In Hong Kong and mainland China, CCTV cameras are almost everywhere. Chinese mainland company “Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd.”. Ltd.” US video surveillance research agency Internet Protocol Video Markets (IPVM) recently discovered that four of its surveillance cameras have the ability to identify race, skin color, and Uyghur or Tibetan faces. Dahua Technology denies the allegation, claiming that it will forever Products that identify ethnicity will not be developed.
Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co Ltd has long been accused of helping the CCP build a surveillance network to persecute Uighurs in the Xinjiang region. In October 2019, it was placed on the sanctions list by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The U.S. government has criticized Dahua Technology for its repression of Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, including arbitrary mass detentions and the use of high-tech surveillance for alleged human rights violations and abuses.
On October 17, 2022, IPVM published an article saying that there are four “Dahua Technology” surveillance cameras, including “DH-IPC-HF8249F-FD”, “DH-IPC-MFW8449-ZHM-D47-LI-0832″, Both DH-CP835-AU1F- LZF2070” and “DH-SDT-5A404-C2F” are capable of identifying gender, age, race, skin color, facial expressions, Uyghur or Tibetan faces. Even the product description on the website mentions such Function.
Develop “Uyghur Alert” system
IPVM pointed out that “Dahua Technology” surveillance cameras can identify Uyghurs in the crowd and issue “Uyghur warnings” to the CCP police to help them quickly arrest Uyghurs. This is the “online police” model touted by Dahua Technology, which aims to improve the police’s ability to predict, warn and prevent. The IPVM has criticized this racial warning technique as evil and must stop.
Dahua Technology was awarded nearly $1 billion in contracts for large-scale policing projects in Xinjiang, including the construction and operation of surveillance facilities in Xinjiang police stations, IPVM said. In November 2020, Dahua Technology responded to the South China Morning Post via email, denying that its products had track tracking capabilities. In February 2021, Dahua Technology was found to have software development tools that included Uyghur tracking capabilities, and the company later changed its name to “never provided ethnic detection products or services in Xinjiang, China.”
In August 2021, Dahua Technology again changed its statement to “never develop products or solutions designed to identify or otherwise target any particular ethnic group”.
In August 2022, Dahua Technology finally acknowledged the authenticity of the “Uyghur Warning” work, but claimed that the document was a “historic internal software design requirement document”. The company never implemented or put it into commercial use.
Recently, “Dahua Technology” admitted to IPVM the authenticity of the introduction of the four camera product webpages, but said on its own website that it was “deeply disturbed and concerned” about the introduction, and has launched an investigation. The company said the investigation found that the pages in question were published before 2018, that they had never developed racial identification features for commercial use, and even claimed that they had “never developed products and solutions that identify or discriminate against any single race.”
The widespread use of technology as a tool of totalitarianism
On October 13, the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights (MIGS) held a meeting to launch a new book, “The State of Surveillance: China’s Quest to Unlock a New Era of Social Control.”
According to the book, the CCP authorizes technology companies to produce stationary CCTV networks, including artificial intelligence (AI) software capable of instant analysis, to form a broad surveillance system that is not bound by China’s legal system and emerging digital privacy codes. Dahua Technology is one of the top ten surveillance technology companies in China.
Hong Kong MTR installs Dahua CCTV
In August 2021, The Epoch Times reported that “Dahua Technology” CCTV cameras were installed in Hong Kong subway stations. The MTR Corporation responded at the time that the CCTV in the station area has a video recording function, but no face recognition function. There have always been strict procedures and guidelines for recording video clips and processing related information obtained from them. Generally, CCTV video clips are destroyed after 28 days. The relevant practices always refer to the guidelines of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data.
Huang Haohua, the convener of the Open Data Group of the Hong Kong Internet Governance Forum, responded at the time that he understood the concerns of Hong Kong citizens about the “Dahua Technology” equipment. The public fears a similar situation will happen in Hong Kong due to the alleged involvement of race-related facial recognition. “When you see Hikvision, Dahua, or even just a 360-degree fisheye lens, you naturally think of a face recognition system.”
Wong also pointed out that the brand of the CCTV is not the most important, the key is how to use it. Even if you use other brands to record video, if the pixels are clear enough, you can put the video on your computer for video analysis and processing. He believes that institutions and individuals using CCTV should have corresponding ethics and should not use artificial intelligence (AI) excessively or indiscriminately.
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