China is known for a lot of things. More recently, the country is well-known for its usage of facial recognition tech, specifically how aggressive the country is using it to monitor their people.
The Use of Facial Recognition in the United States and China
In the U.S., there has been dissent among the people with the police force's use of facial recognition technology, especially during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests that happened across the country.
Nevertheless, the U.S.'s situation regarding how they deploy the technology is a lot tamer compared to how China uses it.
In a CNET report, the Asian country is also accused of using the technology to commit atrocities against a minority group, specifically the Uyghur Muslims, which is similar to what many say against the U.S. force's use of surveillance tools.
"China uses facial recognition to profile Uyghur individuals, classify them on the basis of their ethnicity, and single them out for tracking, mistreatment, and detention," a letter from a bipartisan group of 17 senators said. "And these technologies are deployed in service of a dystopian vision for technology governance, that harnesses the economic benefits of the internet in the absence of political freedom and sees technology companies as instruments of state power."
The letter was sent to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on March 11.
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Control and Mass Behavioral Engineering
However, it doesn't stop there as the country is apparently using facial recognition tech to shame its people and control them publicly.
Previously, the Chinese city of Suzhou has publicly released an image of seven individuals on WeChat who were caught by their many cameras wearing pajamas outside and calling it "uncivilized behavior," according to The Paper, a Chinese publication.
As surveillance experts say, the authorities are using the technology for behavioral engineering on a mass scale, allowing them to create a society of people that will be easier to manage.
Basically, what happens is that through surveillance and the fear of public humiliation, the government of China can control its people and tell them how to act a certain way, from the way they dress to the way they walk.
Aggressive and Pervasive
Surveillance is a massive thing in the country, with cameras honed in almost every area where there would be more people, including tourist spots, hotels, parks, and even mosques.
In a huge database leak in 2019 from a Chinese facial recognition company, more than 6.8 million records recorded daily were left exposed online, which includes sensitive data of people, including their I.D. card numbers and birthdays.
The leak gave the world insight into how massive, and pervasive China's surveillance system is.
Everyone's details, including infants as young as nine days old, are logged and recorded into their system, which they could use in the future.
No matter how minor the problem is, the country will use its surveillance system to carry out the proper punishment, whether you're jaywalking or taking too much tissue.
But the real deal is how countries around the world could easily copy and adopt China's way of monitoring and controlling its people, especially as they are willing to expand their services to the world.
This article is owned by TechTimes.
Written by: Nhx Tingson
