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October 08, 2007
China's Smart Camera Plans
From New York Times:
In the city of Shenzhen (12.4 million people), the Chinese government is rolling out 20,000 surveillance cameras that will be smart cameras. Their goal is to use facial recognition to identify police suspects as well as to detect unusual activity. Additionally, there are 180,000 indoor and outdoor closed-circuit television cameras owned by businesses and government agencies that the police will have the right to integrate. (There are also smart cards given to citizens that contain a lot of information). They are also using cell phone signals to track the location of police officers (chicago is testing this idea).
The article states:
Security experts describe China’s plans as the world’s largest effort to meld cutting-edge computer technology with police work to track the activities of a population and fight crime. But they say the technology can be used to violate civil rights. . . . Both steps are officially aimed at fighting crime and developing better controls on an increasingly mobile population, including the nearly 10 million peasants who move to big cities each year. But they could also help the Communist Party retain power by maintaining tight controls on an increasingly prosperous population at a time when street protests are becoming more common.
Posted by rshah at October 8, 2007 10:00 PM
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