Communications of the ACM
World Catching Up With China on Surveillance Tech
China leads the world in facial recognition and other surveillance technologies, but other countries are adopting similar technologies.
Credit: Roman Pilipey/Shutterstock
China is the global leader in surveillance technologies, although other countries are catching up, according to a study by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
At least 75 nations, including the U.S., support the use of technology to monitor their citizens, with China's Huawei Technologies exporting its surveillance products to 50 countries.
In many cases, governments are using U.S. technology in parallel to Huawei's, with IBM the lead U.S. surveillance provider with its smart-city solutions.
Report author Steven Feldstein identified 64 countries where government agencies have procured facial recognition technology that uses cameras and photo databases, 56 that have purchased smart-city products, and 53 where authorities employ smart policing systems to analyze data and predict crimes.
Said Feldstein, "There is ample time to initiate a much-needed public debate about the proper balance between technology, government surveillance, and the privacy rights of citizens."
From The Wall Street Journal
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Abstracts Copyright © 2019 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA
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