Dahua Smart Police Heart of the City provides real-time Uyghur warnings

Facial recognition software developed by state-owned Chinese video surveillance technology company Dahua provides 'real-time warning for Uyghurs' to the Chinese police, according to researchers . A research report by IPVM revealed that Dahua Technology, the world's second-largest surveillance camera manufacturer, had developed software capable of identifying individuals by ethnicity in real time. The technology was a core component of Dahua’s "Heart of City" (HOC) smart city architecture, which provided a "Smart Policing" solution to Chinese authorities. Per the Los Angeles Times , documents on a Dahua support website revealed a law enforcement user guide dated December 2019 show Dahua’s HOC system can send a warning when it detects someone it identifies as Uyghur. This capability extended beyond simple identification; internal documents suggested the AI could flag individuals with "hidden terrorist inclinations" based on biometric analysis. They also showed a consumer-facing product called SmartPSS offering a feature to sort by race individuals who pass in front of its cameras. Dahua responded by saying the documents referenced by IPVM and the Los Angeles Times were 'historical internal software design documents' and that it 'does not provide products and services for ethnicity detection' in the 'regional markets reported by the media.' System 🤖 Dahua SmartPSS 🔗 Developer: Zhejiang Dahua Technology; China Electronics Technology Group/Hikvision Country: China Sector: Govt - police; Govt - security Purpose: Identify & track Uyghurs Technology: Facial recognition; Computer vision; Neural network; Machine learning Issue: Fairness; Privacy/surveillance; Transparency Resource s 📃 Dahua code Dahua. Statement on recent media reports Timeline ⏰ April 2020 . Reuters reported that Amazon had bought 1,500 thermal cameras from Dahua in a deal valued at close to USD 10 million. The cameras were intended to take the temperatures of workers during the coronavirus pandemic. A day after the Los Angeles Times article was published, US senators Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez sent a letter to then Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos asking whether Amazon knew Dahua was on the entity list when it was considering entering into a contract with the company and whether that came up in its deliberations. Dahua is blacklisted by the US Commerce Department over allegations it helped Beijing detain and monitor Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. The arrangement with Amazon is legal because the rules apply to the public sector, rather than the private sector. However, the deal 'would mean that Amazon willfully ignored guidance from the United States government and purchased equipment from an entity-listed company that is complicit in China’s atrocities against' the Uyghurs, according to Rubio and Menendez. November 2020. Dahua denied selling 'ethnicity-focused recognition' products in a statement to the South China Morning Post after cybersecurity researchers had found code with an ethnic designation for Uyghurs. The company then deleted and updated the code on its website. Legal, regulatory 👩🏼‍⚖️ Robert Menendez, Mario Rubio (2021). Letter to Jeff Bezos

Date it happened

2021-02-01

Organisation involved

Amazon; Modesto City Schools

Product, system or model

Heart of City (HOC); SmartPSS

This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.