China is using new surveillance technologies, like skin color cameras, to increase its influence around the world. This is making people worried everywhere.
On the global stage, China is putting into use new tools for watching people, such as skin color cameras, and this is causing concerns around the world. A recent report from the Internet Protocol Video Market (IPVM), a research group that looks at security and surveillance, has shown that China is violating human rights in Europe by using skin color cameras.
A Chinese company called Dahua is selling cameras with a special feature that can tell what color someone’s skin is. They’re selling these cameras in Europe. This kind of technology has never been used before in any other country. Treating people differently based on their skin color is like a crime called apartheid, and many countries say it’s wrong.
In February 2021, both IPVM and the Los Angeles Times said that Dahua gave the Chinese police a system to watch Uyghur Muslims in real time. This system could figure out if someone was Uyghur by looking at things like the size of their eyebrows, the color of their skin, and where they come from.
According to IPVM’s report from 2018, Chinese companies Dahua and Hikvision have got contracts worth $1 billion from the government in Xinjiang Province, China, since 2016. These contracts are about video cameras. The report says that Dahua’s ICC Open Platform Guide for Human Body Characteristics includes skin color, which they call their “data dictionary.”
The company says that the skin color categories Dahua’s cameras look for are yellow, black, and white. A report from VOA Mandarin, shared around the world on IPVM’s reports, confirms this. Dahua is saying that their camera is an important part of making things safer with smart technology.
