Amnesty Int'l: European companies sell surveillance solutions to China
Three companies based in France, Sweden and the Netherlands sold surveillance solutions to Chinese government agencies, according to new research by Amnesty
Ami Rojkes Dombe
| 23/09/2020
Photo: Bigstock
A new investigation by Amnesty International reveals that European technology companies are selling digital surveillance technologies to public security agencies in China. The findings were published ahead of a crucial meeting in Brussels on September 22 when the European parliament and member countries were to decide whether to strengthen lax export rules.
Amnesty International found that three companies based in France, Sweden and the Netherlands sold digital surveillance systems, such as facial recognition technologies and network cameras, to key players in the Chinese mass surveillance mechanism. "In some cases, the export was directly for use in China’s indiscriminate mass surveillance programmes, with the risk of being used against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups," the report said. "Across China, mass surveillance projects such as 'Skynet' and 'Sharp Eyes' are being rolled out to keep people under constant observation."
One of the companies, according to the report, is Morpho, that today is part of Idemia, a French multinational company. It received a contract to supply facial recognition equipment directly to the Shanghai public security office in 2015. Another company is Axis Communications, a Swedish company. It supplies network cameras specializing in security surveillance and remote monitoring. A Dutch company named Noldus Information Technology sold China an emotion recognition system named FaceReader. The software is used for automatic analysis of facial expressions conveying anger, happiness, sadness, surprise and disgust.
Three companies based in France, Sweden and the Netherlands sold surveillance solutions to Chinese government agencies, according to new research by Amnesty
Photo: Bigstock
A new investigation by Amnesty International reveals that European technology companies are selling digital surveillance technologies to public security agencies in China. The findings were published ahead of a crucial meeting in Brussels on September 22 when the European parliament and member countries were to decide whether to strengthen lax export rules.
Amnesty International found that three companies based in France, Sweden and the Netherlands sold digital surveillance systems, such as facial recognition technologies and network cameras, to key players in the Chinese mass surveillance mechanism. "In some cases, the export was directly for use in China’s indiscriminate mass surveillance programmes, with the risk of being used against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups," the report said. "Across China, mass surveillance projects such as 'Skynet' and 'Sharp Eyes' are being rolled out to keep people under constant observation."
One of the companies, according to the report, is Morpho, that today is part of Idemia, a French multinational company. It received a contract to supply facial recognition equipment directly to the Shanghai public security office in 2015. Another company is Axis Communications, a Swedish company. It supplies network cameras specializing in security surveillance and remote monitoring. A Dutch company named Noldus Information Technology sold China an emotion recognition system named FaceReader. The software is used for automatic analysis of facial expressions conveying anger, happiness, sadness, surprise and disgust.
