Among them, according to documents from Huawei’s website, was a facial recognition system used by police in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi, and a highway surveillance camera system for the region. In the wake of nationwide protests over the summer against police abuse, Microsoft, Amazon and IBM banned police from using their facial recognition technology. One of the products jointly offered by Huawei and Chinese surveillance equipment supplier Vikor can send an alert if a crowd starts to form, according to a marketing presentation. Huawei also said the test report had been approved by a Huawei subcontractor, which the company called a “mistake.”A number of the Huawei partners’ systems found on the website mention the capability to track individuals’ ethnicity. Surveillance systems like the voice-recognition product advertise often-unproven technical abilities, and it’s unclear “how much of it is real and how much of it is boasting,” Wang said.

Source: Washington Post December 12, 2020 16:52 UTC