Hong Kong gets more cameras sparking fears of repression

Oct 7, 2024, 3:46 pm EDT | Masha Borak

Hong Kong gets more cameras sparking fears of repression

More streets in Hong Kong are being filled with cameras with facial recognition, sparking fears over the technology’s potential for political repression.

Last week, the city’s authorities announced a facial recognition system at the border with the neighboring city of Shenzhen in Mainland China. The technology will be piloted in Chung Ying Street in the fourth quarter of the year, according to The Standard.

The new additions are part of a plan to install 2,000 new surveillance cameras this year with more to be added in the future. The police force has also announced the introduction of facial recognition: In July, the special administrative region’s security chief Chris Tang said that the technology could be used to track down suspects.

Currently, it is unclear how many cameras have facial recognition capabilities in Hong Kong. The police have also not provided a timeline for its introduction. The announcements, however, have sparked concerns that Hong Kong will see the same pervasive surveillance systems as mainland China, according to CNN.

The new cameras could be “used for political repression” if they are employed under the city’s national security law, which targets crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign organizations, Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London told the media outlet. The law was introduced after the 2019 anti-government protests and has been used to target activists, civil society groups, journalists and political opponents.

Other experts say that it may be too early to assess the impact of the technology in Hong Kong. Authorities have not laid out in detail how they would use facial recognition, says Normann Witzleb, an associate professor in data protection and privacy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong police say that the force will follow personal data privacy laws, as well as “comprehensive and robust internal guidelines” when it comes to using AI cameras.

The city has more than 54,500 public CCTV cameras, around seven cameras per 1,000 people, according to data from research firm Comparitech. The cameras have already been used to solve at least six crimes and will help fight crime in the future, the police noted.