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How China's Police Used Phones, Faces to Track Protesters


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A screen capture of CCTV footage showing identification software in use, at the showroom of Face++ headquarters in Beijing

Chinese police hung cameras by the millions on street corners and at the entrances to buildings, and have bought powerful facial recognition software and programmed it to identify local citizens.

Credit: Gilles Sabrié/The New York Times

China's police used an advanced surveillance system to track protesters who rallied against the government's pandemic policies this past week.

The system enables authorities to target, detain, and intimidate protest organizers and vocal dissidents.

Its tools include millions of cameras, facial recognition software programmed to identify local citizens, phone monitors, and data- and image-crunching applications.

The phone trackers connect to and recording data on the phones of passersby for police to review.

Many protesters said they now avoid using virtual private networks or other foreign apps like Telegram and Signal out of fear their phones' software might be more closely monitored.

From The New York Times
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Abstracts Copyright © 2022 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA


 

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