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How China uses digital surveillance to track citizens on the road and beyond
Government deploys facial recognition and social credit system to control 1.4 billion people
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
China may be adding a powerful tracking tool to its massive surveillance network.
The Wall Street Journal reports that RFID chips will be installed on new cars starting next month, allowing reading devices on roads to identify passing cars and send that data back to the government.
It could be another part of China’s growing efforts to constantly track the movements of its nearly 1.4 billion citizens, and create detailed profiles of each and every one of them. The stated goal is to improve public security -- but critics worry it could come at the cost of personal privacy and freedom of expression.
Facial recognition
The country already has more than 170 million CCTV cameras watching from street corners and inside buildings, with plans to add some 400 million more in the next two years. Video footage is fed into AI-powered image recognition systems, allowing police to quickly match faces or license plates with records in a database.
At its best, the technology is being touted as an effective way to maintain public order. Fugitives have been captured at concerts attended by thousands of people, drivers have been caught running red lights, and jaywalkers are publicly shamed on digital billboards on the roadside -- all thanks to facial recognition.
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