There’s a good chance you haven’t heard of Hikvision – and there’s a good chance their cameras are still watching you. The Chinese video surveillance company is a major player in the industry, capable of producing 260,000 cameras per day, two out of every three people born per day.first
Hikvision started out as a Chinese entity, and its largest shareholder remains the state-owned China Electronic Technology Corporation (CETC), a defense-industrial company.2 With a direct line of credit of $3 billion from the Chinese government,3 Hikvision received generous support from China’s Communist leaders, allowing the company to offer low prices and rapidly expand overseas, surpassing many of its competitors.
However, concerns about the surveillance capabilities of the cameras have surfaced, along with outcry over their use among Uyghurs, with many calling for the cameras to be removed.
Surveillance cameras are widely used in human rights abuses
Hikvision cameras are used to survey prisoners in “re-education” camps in China’s Xinjiang region. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group, have been sentenced to prison in camps, while more than 1 million are detained.4
The Uighurs speak their language and make up a minority of the population of Xinjiang. China is accused of orchestrating a mass exodus of its ethnic majority (Han people) into the region to “dilution” the Uighur population, which says it is concerned that its population they may be wiped out.5
Reports suggest that Uyghurs have been held in camps and that China has engaged in other human rights abuses against its people, including the forced sterilization of Uyghur women and the separation of children from their families. and break cultural traditions.6 Detainees at the Xinjiang camp also described Hikvision cameras monitoring them 24/7.7 The Telegraph reported:8
“In his small cell, Ovalbek Turdakun is monitored 24/7. Any attempt to talk to someone else, he was immediately told to be silent, while the lights in the room were on around the clock, making it impossible to tell what time of day it was.
Turdakun and his friends detained in the Xinjiang camp are not monitored by guards, but by software. Cameras made by Chinese company Hikvision tracked his every move, according to an account he provided to American surveillance website IPVM. Turdakun had never heard of the company, but recognized the logo after being evacuated to the US last month.”
Hikvision has five partnerships with the Xinjiang government – worth a total of £224 million, or $279.6 million – that have been in place since 2017 and run through 2040. The company’s products, including facial recognition and drones, have been used to survey mosques and other areas in the Uyghur region, but they do not contain them.9
“More than a million cameras from the same company are located in UK schools, hospitals and police departments. Tesco, Costa Coffee and McDonald’s bought Hikvision cameras. They are present in a string of Government buildings,” The Telegraph noted.ten
Hikvision cameras survey UK and US
Hikvision has expanded rapidly, with sales of more than $11.8 billion annually, even as the company has been instrumental in China’s human rights abuses. “Among the policies that Hikvision products have supported is China’s widespread persecution of the predominantly Muslim Uighurs and other minorities in the western province of Xinjiang, “The Atlantic reported.11
“There, CETC provided military-style command and control systems, facial recognition systems that automated ethnic profiling, and a police program that aggregated data and flagged people who were not. considered to be potentially threatened.
… However, appalled at Hikvision’s role in China’s atrocities, many foreign leaders are intrigued. They see an opportunity to acquire tools that can reduce crime and promote growth. Of course, the autocrats among them also have the opportunity to monitor domestic challengers and consolidate their control. “
In the UK, 6 million cameras are in use – most of which are supplied by Hikvision – while the company’s presence has also grown, growing from 70 employees in the UK in 2018 to 128 in 2021. Some of Hikvision’s technologies widely used in the UK are thermal cameras brought to detect COVID-19 symptoms in 2020.twelfth
Worldwide, millions of Hikvision cameras are in use, concentrated in major cities, including over 750,000 units in the US. The Atlantic summarizes their popularity:13
“Offering great discounts to US re-distributors, Hikvision has supplied cameras to Peterson Air Force Base, in Colorado, as well as the US embassies in Kyiv, Ukraine and Kabul, Afghanistan. According to IPVM, a surveillance industry-research group, more than 90 companies have relabeled cameras with their own brands. “
This means that, although federal agencies were asked by Congress to remove Hikvision cameras in August 2019 due to national security concerns, it is difficult to detect all of them.
Hikvision cameras can monitor your neighborhood
Many people have embraced the convenience of “smart” devices in the home and wearable devices. There may not only be smartphones but also alarm clocks, vehicles, refrigerators, and connected doorbells, each revealing another layer of detail about your most personal moments. used for nefarious purposes.
Hikvision has a US subsidiary called EZVIZ, which is headquartered in California and calls itself a “global smart home security brand” that aims to create “safe, convenient, and smart lives for people.” users through smart devices, advanced AI technology and cloud services”.14 Offering a wide range of indoor and outdoor security cameras and smart home devices, you can welcome Hikvision products to survey your own movements, with the help of lights, locks, automatic doorbells and more.
Its smart door viewer will even check for faces, in a chilling example of how privacy is sacrificed when surveillance products are welcomed into our homes. The Atlantic reported:15
“In 2018, the Consumer Electronics Show, about electronics that the Detroit Auto Show is for cars, awarded EZVIZ the innovation award for Smart Door Viewers. The device looks through the peephole, examines faces, and compares them with images in a user-defined database.
Let this sink in. The same technology that is contributing to the greatest human tragedy of this century can also observe the streets of your city, the buildings in your neighborhood, and the living room next door. “
As The Telegraph reported,16 Britain’s Crossbench Peer Lord Alton has warned of the dangers of interweaving mass surveillance with everyday life. “[W]e simply cannot allow the tools of genocide to continue to be used so easily in our daily lives. Mass surveillance systems have always been instrumental in supporting fascism. The government should come up with a timetable for removing these cameras and technologies from the public sector supply chain.”
Towards a prison state
The ultimate goal of increased surveillance isn’t to make it easy to turn off your thermostat or create grocery lists with a smart fridge – the future reality is far more sinister. According to one of my favorite independent journalists, Whitney Webb, measures aimed at authoritarian control and mass surveillance are on the rise worldwide, and in America’s Silicon Valley and national security state. currently being incorporated, according to one of my favorite independent journalists, Whitney Webb.17
Decades-old battles against domestic dissent have always involved technology like databases, and now it’s moving towards technology like facial recognition apps. Webb wrote about the “technological tyranny” at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing that a document from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) – obtained through request of FOIA – says changes are needed to keep a technological advantage over China:18
“This document shows that the US is following China’s lead and even surpassing them in many respects regarding AI-driven technologies, especially its use of mass surveillance. .
This view clearly contradicts the public rhetoric of prominent US government officials and politicians about China, who have viewed the Chinese government’s investments in technology and exports surveillance systems and other technologies are a major ‘threat’ to the ‘way of life’ of Americans. “
In an excerpt from his book, “Digital Silk Road,” Jonathan Hillman, senior economist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, describes how he attended two training courses. created Hikvision’s sales for North America, encouraging representatives to use social media for media exposure and speaking engagements to enhance the company’s image.
Technological capabilities are also mentioned, including “intrusion detection”, “person counting”, “heat mapping” and “crosswalk detection”, as tools for asset protection. private but can also be used to strengthen authoritarian control:19
“Not to mention how these abilities can be used in different ways. People counting can also warn governments of repression when large groups are gathering. Line detection can alert local police when people come and go from a dissident’s home. Automatic alarms can help people who are not idle. Hikvision’s facial recognition arsenal provides a unique system for dealing with penalties and rewards. “
‘Surveillance capitalism’ is also used to control society
As Hillman noted, it’s not just Hikvision that seems guilty of promoting an authoritarian state and turning a blind eye to human rights abuses. Oracle, a multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in California, the heart of Silicon Valley, has also marketed police applications of its products to countries with human rights concerns. , including China, Mexico, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates.20
Oracle, along with Google, has also contracted to “collect and track vaccine data” as part of Operation Warp Speed’s surveillance system during the pandemic.21
In his book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Harvard University professor Shoshana Zuboff reveals how the biggest tech companies in the world have also misappropriated our personal data – the so-called “behavioral residual data stream” – which we don’t know or agree to and are using. against us to make a profit for themselves.
There are no laws in place to limit this brand new type of surveillance capitalism, and the only reason it has been able to thrive over the past 20 years is because there are no laws against it, primarily. weak because it never existed before. . Surveillance has become the largest for-profit industry on the planet, and your entire existence is now targeted for profit – and control.
Concerning Hikvision’s cameras, there was concern that the devices might have features, such as microphones, that could be turned on remotely, allowing them to relay information about China and their operations. as a “back door to Beijing”.22 The moral of the story is that once you open the door to tracking, it’s hard to tell who might be watching or why.
