In Latin America, Big Brother China is watching you
- The uptake of Chinese surveillance technology in the region sparks fears it could be subverted both by local governments and Beijing
Chinese surveillance technology is being used by Latin American countries for everything from fighting crime to monitoring natural disasters – but critics fear it could be used for darker purposes, too.
Without sufficient checks, the technology could provide authoritarian regimes with “something they have previously only dreamed about: a massive ability to sanction persons who engage in political or social behaviours disapproved of by government”, warns a recent study by the Centre For Strategic and International Studies.
“New systems already being pioneered in China will link near-total surveillance – made possible by ubiquitous cameras – and access to location data in smartphones, as well as other information on virtually all aspects of a person, including telephone and digital communications, banking and credit card data and complementary commercial transactions, contracts, and public registries,” says the report, titled “The Future of Latin America and the Caribbean in the Context of the Rise of China”.
The author of the report, Evan Ellis, says such systems would give the governments purchasing them “alarming abilities to monitor and identify behaviours among virtually all residents of their territory and beyond – not only criminal activities but also those that governments deem socially or politically objectionable”.
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