MPs call for ban on Chinese surveillance camera technology
A cross-party group of MPs has referred to as on the federal government to ban the sale and operation of CCTV surveillance cameras linked to human rights abuses in China.
Surveillance cameras provided by the Chinese producers, Hikvision and Dahua are broadly utilized in state “re-education” camps which have been accused of subjecting Uyghur Muslims to pressured labour and torture.
The cameras have been banned within the US however are broadly used within the UK throughout authorities departments and firms.
Some 67 parliamentarians condemned Hikvision and Dahua’s involvement in enabling human rights abuses and referred to as for a ban of the technology being offered or used within the UK.
An announcement calling for the ban has been signed by former conservative ministers, together with the Brexit ministers Steve Baker and David Davis MP, Damien Green MP and Lord Bethel.
Labour human rights advocates Baroness Sharmi Chakrabarti, and Baroness Helena Kennedy, Lib Dem chief, Ed Davey, Green MP Caroline Lucas and the SNP’s Alyn Smith, have additionally supported the ban.
Call for ban
“We call for a ban on the sale and operation of Hikvision and Dahua surveillance equipment in the UK and condemn their involvement in technology-enabled human rights abuses in China,” the MPs mentioned in a press release.
They additionally call on the Government to fee an impartial nationwide assessment of the dimensions, capabilities, ethics and human rights impression of contemporary CCTV within the UK.
David Davis MP mentioned that it was “shocking” what number of UK firms have been relying on technology from Chinese state-owned firms.
“This technology comes equipped with advanced surveillance capabilities such as facial recognition, person tracking and gender identification. These pose a significant threat to civil liberties in our countries,” he mentioned.
“These companies, Hikvision and Dahua, are Chinese state-owned companies, raising urgent questions over whether they also pose a threat to national security,” he added.
The MPs’s call to motion follows analysis by the marketing campaign group Big Brother Watch that discovered the cameras have been broadly deployed by authorities our bodies together with councils, secondary colleges, NHS trusts, universities and police forces within the UK
Freedom of data requests by despatched out by the marketing campaign group Big Brother Watch discovered that 800 out of 1300 public our bodies that responded are utilizing cameras from the 2 producers.
Dozens of public our bodies have AI-equipped cameras provided by the Chinese producers, able to facial detection, gender recognition, figuring out fights or whether or not somebody is carrying a face masks. It isn’t clear whether or not these capabilities have been deployed within the UK.
The marketing campaign group says the Chinese firms provide rebranded cameras which as offered beneath different names, together with Honeywell and Toshima, in order that the true variety of Hikvision and Dahua cameras used within the UK public sector could also be considerably increased.
Hikvision cameras have been present in some branches of Tesco, Starbucks, Burger King, Dominos Pizza, Costa Coffee and MacDonald’s. Cameras provided by Dahua have been recognized on the retailer Pets Corner.
The US Federal Communications Commission successfully banned Hikvision and Dahua from use by US authorities our bodies in March 2021, citing safety causes, in a transfer that gained backing from both houses of Congress.
In July 2021, the House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee urged the government to ban the operation of apparatus offered by Hikvision and Dahua within the UK.
“The Government should prohibit UK firms and public sector bodies from conducting business with, investing in, or entering into partnerships with such Chinese firms, to ensure that UK companies do not provide either blueprints or financing for further technology-enabled human rights abuse,” the committee wrote in a 40 page report.
Human Rights abuses
Hikvision and Dahua, have gained contracts worth £990 million to supply surveillance techniques within the Xinjiang province, together with re-education camps the place an estimated a million Uyghurs are detained and topic to abuse, torture and compelled sterilisation.
Hikvision and Dahau have beforehand been discovered to supply ethnicity profiling instruments on their CCTV cameras utilized in Xinjiang.
The Uyghur muslims of the area are described by Amnesty International as “among the most heavily surveilled populations in the world”
According to the human rights group there have been studies of bodily abuse, beatings solitary confinement and electrical shocks getting used in opposition to Uyghars in Xinjiang priso
Accounts obtained by Amnesty International of inmates being positioned into stress positions, the illegal use of restraints, sleep deprivation, being hung from a wall, being subjected to extraordinarily chilly temperatures, and solitary confinement.
Security Vulnerabilities
Security consultants have recognized a lot of safety vulnerabilities in Hikvision and Dahua merchandise that would put privateness in danger.
Reports from Italy discovered a flaw in a Hikvision system led to cameras making an attempt to hook up with servers in China.
Further safety holes have been discovered this month when one in all Hikvision’s distant viewing software program instruments was discovered to attach on to providers in China. Hikvision blamed the issues on outdated software program.
Duty to behave
Fraser Sampson, the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, mentioned that emergency providers and native authorities should be capable to belief firms they work with on surveillance.
“That means acknowledgement of, and assumption of responsibility for, actions, decisions, and their consequences and a willingness to engage in public scrutiny. Hikvision and Dahua have not come close to this expectation in my view,” he mentioned.
“We’re now at a moment where most people would agree there’s a duty to act,” he added.
Baroness Shami Chakrabarti mentioned that UK taxpayers mustn’t put money into Chinese technology that’s used to facilitate abuse in China.
“We mustn’t support abuses over there or replicate a China-style surveillance state over here. We need an urgent and fully independent review of surveillance in modern Britain,” she mentioned.
Jake Hurfurt, Head of Research and Investigations at Big Brother Watch, mentioned that Chinese state-owned CCTV has no place watching Britain’s streets.
“Hikvision and Dahua are closely linked to the genocide in Xinjiang and their low-cost, high-tech cameras are normalising intrusive surveillance in the UK,” he mentioned.
“We urge the Prime Minister to follow the US example and urgently ban Hikvision and Dahua from operating in the UK,” he mentioned.
Computer Weekly has contacted Hikvision and Dahua for remark.
