Posted on 02/18/2021 6:37:55 PM PST by SeekAndFind
At least half of London’s boroughs have bought and deployed China-made surveillance systems linked to the abuse of Uyghurs, according to data exclusively given to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, raising alarm among privacy advocates and lawmakers.
Freedom of information requests filed in late 2020 with all 32 London councils and the next 20 largest UK city councils found about two-thirds owned technology made by two Chinese companies accused of links to the repression of Uyghurs.
At least 28 councils owned technology made by Hikvision, the world’s largest purveyor of video surveillance systems and vendor to Xinjiang police agencies, revealed data obtained by digital rights researcher Samuel Woodhams and seen exclusively by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Seven councils had technology made by Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co Ltd, China’s second-largest surveillance equipment maker.
In total 16 London councils had technology made by Hikvision or Dahua—both of which face strict trade restrictions in the United States.
Six London boroughs and three other councils did not respond to requests about their links with the Chinese firms, or denied having enough data to disclose what they had deployed.
“We’re getting a clearer picture of just how pervasive these firms’ technology is in the UK—and how frequently public funds are being used to acquire it,” said Woodhams, who works for internet research firm Top10VPN.
From tracking the spread of the coronavirus pandemic to tackling crime, surveillance tech is increasingly being rolled out worldwide for safety and public health reasons, but critics have raised concerns over privacy and discrimination.
The FOI data shows the extent to which Britain relies on Chinese surveillance tech despite parliament probing Hikvision’s human rights record and the United States blacklisting both firms for links to the persecution of Muslim minorities.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
u wanna buy stuff that works-ok? London has a muslim problem-their own.
The rest hasn’t been installed yet.
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