China police collect voice biometrics with iFlytek for mass surveillance
The Chinese government, collaborating with AI company iFlytek, has been collecting voice pattern samples to build a national voice biometric database. Police use an Automatic Speaker Recognition system to automatically identify targeted voices in phone conversations and alert authorities. Human Rights Watch reports that the collection occurs with little transparency, and individuals may not know their voice patterns have been taken or be able to challenge the surveillance. iFlytek has not responded to Human Rights Watch's inquiries about the program.
- Date it happened
- 2012-01-01
- Organisation involved
- Ministry of Public Security
- Product, system or model
- Automatic Speaker Recognition (ASR) system
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