China wants to use the vast amounts of data it has been collecting for years to create a surveillance system that would search through the data collected on citizens’ daily activities and identify patterns that could predict when crimes or protests are likely to happen.<\/p>\n
Leaked documents showed that this automated surveillance will create profiles that include gender, race, biometrics, criminal records, mental illness and more.<\/p>\n
If several people classified as high-risk are gathered in one place, an alert is automatically sent to nearby police units.<\/p>\n
To get the project started, China is seeking offers from companies willing to provide the technology needed to build this advanced surveillance system. Chinese police have already claimed to have built a database of over 2.5 billion facial images. A surveillance contracted called Megvii has reportedly developed software that can connect a person to all digital accounts used to access online services and track their movements and daily activities.<\/p>\n
Over the years, China has made a conscious effort to keep an eye on its citizens by investing a lot of resources in surveillance systems. The Chinese government constantly dictates how citizens should live their lives, especially their online presence on social media platforms.<\/p>\n