Concerns Raised Over Chinese Surveillance Camera Firm (apnews.com) 24
An independent monitor of Britain's use of surveillance cameras has asked for the government to clarify its positions on buying equipment from a Chinese technology company accused of involvement in human rights abuses. From a report: Fraser Sampson, the biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner, said he raised concerns with senior Cabinet officials after Hikvision failed to answer questions about the extent of its role in China's treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in western Xinjiang province. "There are serious unanswered questions about Hikvision's involvement in appalling human rights abuses in China," Sampson said in a statement Tuesday. "The company seems unwilling or unable to provide assurances about the ethics of some of its operations and about security concerns associated with its equipment."
Sampson said the company's cameras and facial recognition technology have been implicated in "systematic human rights abuses" against Uyghurs. He said widespread persecution of the minority group in Xinjiang "is known to rely heavily on surveillance technology, including facial recognition software designed to detect racial characteristics." The Telegraph newspaper reported earlier this month that the U.K. health department banned Hikvision, which is part-owned by the Chinese government, from competing for new business after a procurement report found "ethical concerns" about the company.
Sampson said the company's cameras and facial recognition technology have been implicated in "systematic human rights abuses" against Uyghurs. He said widespread persecution of the minority group in Xinjiang "is known to rely heavily on surveillance technology, including facial recognition software designed to detect racial characteristics." The Telegraph newspaper reported earlier this month that the U.K. health department banned Hikvision, which is part-owned by the Chinese government, from competing for new business after a procurement report found "ethical concerns" about the company.
Critical Race Practice (Score:1)
He said widespread persecution of the minority group in Xinjiang "is known to rely heavily on surveillance technology, including facial recognition software designed to detect racial characteristics."
With actual applications like this, isn't critical race *theory* a foregone conclusion?
Yes, In the Third World (Score:1)
With actual applications like this, isn't critical race *theory* a foregone conclusion?
The dirty "secret" (i.e. reality) is that western/white countries are the only ones where racism is largely looked down upon or even challenged, even today. So the dominant conversations and "theory" have taken on this strange quality where they only ever talk about racism by whites.
A major problem with CRT is that it and its proponents, being racists themselves, do this intentionally.
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Explain critical race theory without googling it.
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Most people criticising CRT can't tell you what it is, even if they google it. That's how powerful the propaganda is.
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>The dirty "secret" (i.e. reality) is that western/white countries are the only ones where racism is largely looked down upon or even challenged.
Indeed, it is startling how much casual racism you see in most "non western" countries all the time.
I mean I could not really see most people saying "He is only a (insert race/nationality/similar)" on a street where the person in question can clearly hear it in an off hand comment "In the west". But in quite many other countries I hear such at least weekly. Or
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bbbbut whattabout ???
what a lousy justification for not trying to make things better here
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What do you mean? I did not claim a whataboutism in any way. That would require me to say or indicate somehow that just because things re bad elsewhere we should stop improving here.
I strongly think that things should be done better in the west BUT also in the rest of the world.
And further much of the world seems to have much further to get to a good place or even to the point where we are.
So yes, we should push for further progress in the west but we should also push hard for things in the rest of the wo
Flock Safety (Score:1)
We are all being tracked like rats in a lab maze, and there is nothing we can do about it.
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Where are the data going?
I checked their web site. It says clearly. "The cloud". Bet you feel much more secure and better now. It also uses the word "encrypted" - that definitely satisfied all my worries. Sure there's no need to ever check the details again.
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When you are ... (Score:4, Funny)
If you are concerned about human rights abuses (Score:1)
How about stopping buying gas and oil from the dictatorships in Middle East, or from let's say Russia?
Not possible, can't afford to do that? I knew it
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The UK allows unrestricted immigration from Hong Kong. There is some history there as it used to be a British territory on loan from China, but still... The government expects around 300,000 Hong Kong citizens to migrate to the UK under this scheme, which is a response to Chinese crack-downs on democracy there.
Yet for some reason the same open door policy is not available to Uyghurs, or for that matter Syrians fleeing war, or even Ukrainians.
Says the MP from the govt... (Score:2)
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Hikvision cameras are indeed pretty good. You can replace the firmware with a hacked one that adds new features and disables any connection to Hikvision, and any reliance on their software to configure them.
The problem is purely ethical.