Chinese surveillance camera maker Hikvision advertised ethnicity recognition technology to European customers. Writes about it The Guardian.
In a brochure published on the website, the company offered a range of features developed in collaboration with British startup FaiceTech and an unnamed Italian firm.
These include facial recognition for retail security, border controls and anti-money laundering checks for banks.
The pamphlet also advertised “additional facial demographic analysis algorithms”, including profiling “gender, race, ethnicity, and age”.
Following an appeal from journalists, Hikvision removed the mention of both firms from its website. The company assured that the listed technology has never been sold in the UK. The document only detailed “the potential application of cameras with features developed by the partners,” they added.
FaiceTech denied cooperation with Hikvision. The company said the brochure was created and published without its knowledge or consent.
The marketing materials were first discovered by the human rights group Big Brother Watch.
“It is deeply disturbing that the same racist technology that is being used in Xinjiang to suppress the Uyghur population is being sold in the UK. Hikvision normalizes highly intrusive surveillance capabilities that have no place in a democracy,” said Madeleine Stone, a member of the legal and policy group.
She believes the government should ban the technology.
In 2019, the US Department of Commerce accused Hikvision of complicity in human rights abuses in China’s crackdown on Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities. The department added the company to the sanctions list.
Hikvision has acknowledged that its devices may have been used in “re-education camps”. In 2019, the company sold at least one camera model with racial recognition features.
Unlike in the US, cameras from a Chinese manufacturer are widely used in the UK. In November 2022, the government announced its intention ban use of Hikvision and Dahua devices in the public sector.
The company said it did not sell equipment directly in the UK. Distributors and integrators are engaged in the sale of their products in the country:
“Hikvision has never knowingly or intentionally committed human rights violations, […] and will never do so in the future.
Recall that in July 2021, the US government imposed sanctions against Chinese AI companies for violating the rights of Muslim minorities.
In May, a programmer-engineer from China spoke about testing an emotion recognition system on Uyghurs in police stations in Xinjiang.
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Chinese surveillance camera maker Hikvision advertised ethnicity recognition technology to European customers. Writes about it The Guardian.
In a brochure published on the website, the company offered a range of features developed in collaboration with British startup FaiceTech and an unnamed Italian firm.
These include facial recognition for retail security, border controls and anti-money laundering checks for banks.
The pamphlet also advertised “additional facial demographic analysis algorithms”, including profiling “gender, race, ethnicity, and age”.
Following an appeal from journalists, Hikvision removed the mention of both firms from its website. The company assured that the listed technology has never been sold in the UK. The document only detailed “the potential application of cameras with features developed by the partners,” they added.
FaiceTech denied cooperation with Hikvision. The company said the brochure was created and published without its knowledge or consent.
The marketing materials were first discovered by the human rights group Big Brother Watch.
“It is deeply disturbing that the same racist technology that is being used in Xinjiang to suppress the Uyghur population is being sold in the UK. Hikvision normalizes highly intrusive surveillance capabilities that have no place in a democracy,” said Madeleine Stone, a member of the legal and policy group.
She believes the government should ban the technology.
In 2019, the US Department of Commerce accused Hikvision of complicity in human rights abuses in China’s crackdown on Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim minorities. The department added the company to the sanctions list.
Hikvision has acknowledged that its devices may have been used in “re-education camps”. In 2019, the company sold at least one camera model with racial recognition features.
Unlike in the US, cameras from a Chinese manufacturer are widely used in the UK. In November 2022, the government announced its intention ban use of Hikvision and Dahua devices in the public sector.
The company said it did not sell equipment directly in the UK. Distributors and integrators are engaged in the sale of their products in the country:
“Hikvision has never knowingly or intentionally committed human rights violations, […] and will never do so in the future.
Recall that in July 2021, the US government imposed sanctions against Chinese AI companies for violating the rights of Muslim minorities.
In May, a programmer-engineer from China spoke about testing an emotion recognition system on Uyghurs in police stations in Xinjiang.
Subscribe to Cryplogger news in Telegram: Cryplogger AI – all the news from the world of AI!
Found a mistake in the text? Select it and press CTRL+ENTER
