Chinese state owned CCTV now monitors most of UK

Published today by Big Brother Watch and after a six month study and based upon thousands of Free of Information requests.

A majority of public sector CCTV networks in the UK use a Chinese state owned surveillance system. The network is banned in the US.

Here's the full report: Who's Watching You? The dominance of Chinese state-owned CCTV in the UK.

 

I'm sure Big Brother Watch won't mind me sharing the first paragraph or so taken from the Introduction to their report:

 

And more from the Introduction:

 

The following contains a list of the more advanced features that come with these cameras:

 

Sign the petition to Boris Johnson to ban Hikvision here:

Ban Hikvision

 

pretty sure all the security camera ppl use these days are mostly made in china. just like iphone, tiktok etc etc. the point is how do you prove they are monitor you. innocence until proven guilty, remember. beside CCP prefer monitor domestically over NORMAL ppl from other place. no point to spend the resource to monitor avg/normal foreigner unless they work for MI6/CIA etc etc

 

There are security issues because the CCTV networks are connected to the internet. And the cameras have been banned in the US.

Also there are significant privacy issues because the cameras have A.I. and facial recognition capabilities.

How hypocritical is it for the West to decry the Chinese for using such technology against their own population and then to roll out the exact same Chinese made technology in your own country? It almost defies belief.

 

The UK is heading towards a creepy police state.

We saw the beginnings of this with Theresa May's "Snooper's Charter" back in 2015.

Technology, rather than being a big liberator of the people, can quickly be turned into an oppressor of the people.

 

foreign outsourcing allows other Countries access to all your data - it's a national security risk

 

It's interesting that the UK are a signatory of the GDPR. And yet, their government don't understand that the data is being if not "read" at least "sniffed" by the Chinese. No wonder the Chinese like Xiden so much....

 

Why would the Chinese be interested in watching me go to stores?

 

There are huge privacy issues involved with having such powerful spyware available in every shop and street corner. With facial recognition combined with A.I. data analysis, they can potentially track your every movement. This is what happens in China. They can observe your shopping and social habits, and build a complete psychological and social profile of you. And such data is a saleable item just as is the data the internet companies gather on you based upon your online browsing habits.

 

All that applies to your mobile phone, store loyalty cards and credit card too which all have your personal details. Are you going to give those up too?

 

This is of course exactly what the Brexit Leave campaign did using Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and a sister company somewhere in Canada to hide their tracks.
It was of course discovered after the vote and while the issue caused CA to be shut down and its director sacked, it never received the outrage I thought it deserved.
It wasn't only the potential for profit, it was a clear example of using mined information to target voters to vote a certain way.

 

Because they might be tracking you on your mobile phone, and gathering data via your store loyalty and credit cards, therefore it must be okay to have spy cameras everywhere monitoring your every move?

Come on. Are you serious?

There are privacy issues regarding mobile phones as well which are currently being looked at, but that's another topic entirely.

 

The data from my mobile phone, store loyalty and credit cards are much more valuable to anyone "spying" than anything obtained by surveillance cameras. I could not care less if someone was tracking me. Why would anyone bother to monitor my every movement - I am of no significance to anyone in places like China - If I was they could just have someone outside my house watching me

 

This is a problem. The largest problem however is that the western world is allowing China to be a super power in the terms of tech. We won’t allow them to flourish here at home as far as the production of tech components. We also need to somehow stop the Chinese from stealing patents.

 

You're far too modest when you admit, "Why would anyone bother to monitor my every movement - I am of no significance to anyone in places like China."

Don't forget it's already been admitted Cambridge Analytica was closed down because it stole data from millions of Facebook users for use for political purposes. However it was also Cambridge Analytica's big mistake to boast on their homepage of having got Trump elected........

Just think what private and personal data could be harvested and stolen by spy cameras in every shop and street corner connected to A.I. and facial recognition.

And you say it doesn't matter..........

 

The TV News shows us such images as above as a clear example of how oppressive and creepy the communist government of China has become. Apparently they are clearly abusing the rights of their people.

However the exact same cameras with the exact same facial recognition systems linked to A.I. analysis and made by the exact same Chinese government owned company, are already being used in the UK. And the problem is steadily growing. Now just what is wrong with that?

 

Or do they create tech that overrides patented tech?
To be safe perhaps the west should forbid sales of any tech based product to China?

 

Any idea what is meant by "CCTV implicated in human rights abuses?"

 

All APPLE phones are made in China and may also be doing what you claim CCTV is doing in Britain????

 

It's not a case of what I "claim CCTV is doing in Britain." This is now published fact. Various authorities in the UK have now admitted to using these cameras complete with A.I. controlled facial recognition.

Again read the full report: Who's Watching You? The dominance of Chinese state-owned CCTV in the UK.

 

Is your concern that the British government is monitoring you or are you saying CHINA is monitoring you????

 

As I've suggested already, my opinion doesn't really come into it. I'm merely relaying the facts in the manner of a journalist.

But if you really want me to spell it out for you, in the first instance the problem definitely is that the British government, along with other private parties (who will also be gathering data on you and selling it on to third parties like a commodity), are invading our privacy and hence abusing our rights as free citizens.

Secondary to that is the small security risk that the Chinese government has built a back door into the system which ultimately is wired up to the internet. Such "backdoors" are already known about and that's probably one of the reasons why the product has been banned in the US.

Any clearer?