As per a new report, a Chinese surveillance and security firm is advertising a new racial profiling feature. Read to know more about the controversial feature.
All about the racial profiling feature:
Reports reveal Hikvision is touting its racial profiling feature to customers in various European nations and the United Kingdom. As per a report by The Guardian, a brochure on the company’s website advertises features such as “gender, age, race or ethnicity profiling” and “optional Demographic Profiling Facial analysis algorithms”. Hikvision is allegedly collaborating with FaiceTech, a start-up based in the UK.
However, FaiceTech is denying collaboration with Kikvision. Additionally, the document in question was created without FaiceTech’s consent and knowledge. The firm also sent a legal letter to the Chinese company, demanding the removal of the document since it deceives the public that “FaiceTech is in some way associated with Hikvision”. Reportedly, the Hikvision website also cited an Italian-based firm offering racial profiling. However, the post is since deleted.
More on the controversy
Hikvision is currently facing a ban in the UK due to its involvement in ethnic cleansing in the Xinjiang province of China. In 2019,l the United States placed Hikvision on the blacklist for human rights violation allegations and watching of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. As per The Guardian report, posts related to racial profiling were removed following an inquiry by the publication in the UK. The firm stated that the technology was not sold in the UK.
Additionally, it claimed the document facts “potential application of our cameras, with technology built independently by FaiceTech and other partners”. The brochure was first discovered by the campaign group Big Brother Watch. “Hikvision’s surveillance products pose a real threat to rights and security. The government must act now to ban this rights-abusing technology,” stated Madeleine Stone. Stone is the legal and policy officer of the group. She added that “intrusive surveillance capabilities” such as this have no place in democracies.