Hong Kong plans to install thousands of surveillance cameras. Critics say it’s more proof the city is moving closer to China
Hong Kong plans to install thousands of surveillance cameras. Critics say it’s more proof the city is moving closer to China
Glance up while strolling through parts of downtown Hong Kong and, chances are, you’ll notice the glassy black lens of a surveillance camera trained on the city’s crowded streets.
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Though it consistently ranks among the world’s safest big cities, police in the Asian financial hub say the new cameras are needed to fight crime – and have raised the possibility of equipping them with powerful facial recognition and artificial intelligence tools.
That’s sparked alarm among some experts who see it as taking Hong Kong one step closer to the pervasive surveillance systems of mainland China, warning of the technology’s repressive potential.
Hong Kong police had previously set a target of installing 2,000 new surveillance cameras this year, and potentially more than that each subsequent year. The force plans to eventually introduce facial recognition to these cameras, security chief Chris Tang told local media in July – adding that police could use AI in the future to track down suspects.
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London has been close to China for 30 years by that logic
Surely you must’ve read the article and understand the actual cause for concern. For example, from the article, 8 of the 10 most surveilled cities are in China:
According to an analysis by Comparitec, eight of the top 10 most surveilled cities in the world per capita are in China, where facial recognition is an inescapable part of daily life – from the facial scans required to register a new phone number, to facial recognition gates in some subway stations.
Where those cameras have been used in repressive ways:
In the far-western region of Xinjiang, Beijing has used cameras to monitor members of the Muslim-majority Uyghur population. And when unprecedented nationwide protests broke out in late 2022 against the government’s strict Covid policies, police used facial recognition along with other sophisticated surveillance tools to track down protesters, The New York Times found.
First of all, fuck China. Second of all, I need to give my government ID to register a phone number in Europe. An ID with a cookie cutter photo that requires straight-ahead angles, ears visible, no glasses, etc. They weren't like that 30yrs ago, where you used to have a photo at a slight angle, looking natural. Shitloads of cameras in my city, enough for there to be a sign under the nameplate that says 'city is surveilled". The only difference here is who is doing the survailance and how they are using it. I imagine had the government been far right, they would've used them similar to how China does.
Looks like China's got a pretty large lead, even relative to London.
https://www.comparitech.com/vpn-privacy/the-worlds-most-surveilled-cities/
The 10 most surveilled cities in the world – cameras per person
Based on the number of cameras per 1,000 people, these cities are the top 10 most surveilled in the world:
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Cities of China* — 626m cameras to 1.43bn people = 439.07 cameras per 1,000 people
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Hyderabad, India — 900,000 cameras for 10,801,163 people = 83.32 cameras per 1,000 people
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Indore, India – 200,000 cameras per 3,302,077 people = 60.57 cameras per 1,000 people
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Delhi, India — 449,934 cameras for 22,547,000 people = 19.96 cameras per 1,000 people
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Singapore, Singapore — 109,072 cameras for 6,080,859 people = 17.94 cameras per 1,000 people
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Moscow, Russia — 214,000 cameras for 12,680,389 people = 16.88 cameras per 1,000 people
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Baghdad, Iraq — 120,000 cameras for 7,711,305 people = 15.56 cameras per 1,000 people
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Seoul, South Korea — 144,513 cameras for 9,988,049 people = 14.47 cameras per 1,000 people
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St. Petersburg, Russia — 75,000 cameras for 5,561,294 people = 13.49 cameras per 1,000 people
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London, England (UK) — 127,423 cameras for 9,648,110 people = 13.21 cameras per 1,000 people
I wonder how this changes if you adjust it for land size instead. As someone living in Singapore, I'd be surprised if it wasn't at least the top 3.
The China one is worse, not everyone lives in cities.
But damn they have so many cameras there.
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In terms of surveillance. It has been.
Have you been to Beijing?