Surveillance cameras mounted on a lamp post in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Photo: AP
Inside China Tech: How facial recognition technology facilitates China’s surveillance
- State surveillance camera makers largely benefited from the rise in demand for the technology after 9/11 terror attacks
Surveillance cameras mounted on a lamp post in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Photo: AP
China had about 176 million surveillance cameras in operation as of 2016. By 2022, the number is expected to reach 2.76 billion, in a country with a population of 1.4 billion, according to IDC, a market intelligence company.
The technology, which uses biometric computer applications to automatically identify an individual from a database of digital images, is already being deployed at US airports.
In China, for example, facial recognition is now being used not just at border checkpoints, but to check school attendance and spot jaywalkers. Its large population and centralised identity databases have helped it make huge strides in facial recognition technology.
In this episode of Inside China Tech, our technology editor Chua Kong Ho speaks to Sarah Dai, our Beijing-based reporter, about how China’s surveillance industry is expanding with the rapid increasing in demands for scrutiny at all levels of society and how that affects people’s daily lives.
