China's national observation systems: a source of not only data, but also a steady income

Habré quite often publishes articles and news about citizen surveillance systems that are actively used in China. In fact, this country is ahead of the rest of the planet with respect to tracking what urban dwellers are busy with (at least villages). Bearing in mind the population of this country, one can not be surprised at the billion-dollar budgets of projects on the introduction of video surveillance systems.



And a part of this money goes to the developers, who in time understood the trend of video surveillance and moved into this area.

Billionaires from CCTV

At least four people became billionaires after they became involved in monitoring systems. One of the "video millionaires" - Dai Lin, the head of Tiandy Technologies Co.

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He founded his own company in 1994, while CCTV cameras were extremely rare in China (and not only there). Now, of course, these devices can be found almost everywhere (someone even finds them in his house with due diligence, but this is a completely different story). In China, video surveillance systems are present everywhere, with the help of cameras, the state is trying to track both road traffic offenders and lazy students in schools.



For a quarter of a century, Dai Lin turned from a man who traveled every day to his own office on a bicycle (many wealthy people now do it, but it’s rather a tribute to fashion) into a businessman with a personal luxury vehicle and driver. Lin was the last of four billionaires who made their fortunes on video surveillance. The total capital of these four people is about $ 12 billion, in any case, the compilers of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index think so.

Cameras everywhere

As for the statistics of video surveillance systems, in China in 2016 at least 176 million cameras operated, which “look” at the streets and buildings of the country. In 2017, according to experts, the government invested about $ 184 billion in state security, and a large part of this amount was made up of video surveillance systems. In 2020, the government plans to make video surveillance systems omnipresent, establishing control over citizens in buildings and on the streets. Soon it will be difficult to find a place in any city in China where there are no cameras.







Not only companies specializing in video surveillance, but also any hi-tech startups in the country make their contribution to the observation of citizens. In almost any innovative business of the Middle Kingdom, associated with technology, you can find an element of monitoring the activities of citizens. Games, electric cars, traffic analysis and much more - everywhere there is a monitoring module that collects any user data and sends it to the data processing center for analysis. Users themselves are not always aware of the presence of such a module.



Proponents of the development of such systems state that monitoring provides an opportunity to improve the safety of citizens, as well as bring the country forward in terms of technology. Indeed, in order to process huge amounts of data from cameras and other sensors, technologies must be developed. Artificial intelligence, neural networks - all this is gradually being improved in the Middle Kingdom, the country is one of the technological leaders.







Opponents believe that China’s smart technologies are not conducive to the development of democratic freedoms, but serve the goals of the government, which has been able to control everyone. And the possibilities of officials are increasing every day.



The authorities have repeatedly tried to refute this view. At the forum in Davos, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of China stated that the statements regarding the use of monitoring systems as a “Big Brother” are unfounded. Representatives of technology companies in China, who are involved in such developments, either do not comment on anything, or talk about the benefits of the technologies being created. In particular, a spokesman for Alibaba, a company behind the City Brain project, said the system is evolutionary in areas such as traffic management. In addition, he believes that video surveillance systems can significantly reduce the response time of the relevant services to emergency situations.



Over the past few years, monitoring systems in China have ceased to be specialized. Many of them are part of larger composite projects. For example - a system of assessing citizens according to their degree of reliability. Each person will be assigned a rating on which his life will depend, including such areas as education and lending.



In 2016, the system worked, it was implemented in the field. It takes into account certain details of the social life of a citizen and his financial actions. On this basis , a “credibility rating” is formed, which determines for the Chinese the possibility of obtaining such benefits as international travel, education, insurance and loans.



"Good" members of society can receive discounts on electricity, take things on rent without collateral, and even receive a reduced interest on the loan in the bank. Chinese dating site Baihe even promotes accounts of good citizens, leaving the “bad” somewhere at the bottom of the rankings.



On the streets, traffic observance (both drivers and pedestrians) is also monitored. And not only law enforcement agencies, but also all the same surveillance systems. And the Chinese themselves are quite pleased with the innovation. One of them in an interview with the Air Force said : “I have a feeling that over the past six months, people's behavior has gotten better and better. For example, at the wheel now we always stop at pedestrian crossings. If you don’t stop, you lose points. At first we were worried about losing points, but now we are used to it. ”



As for the punishments for the irresponsible, they are enough. An example is an attempt by a student’s parent to enter the metro with a student ticket. Such a ticket costs several times less than usual. If the offender is caught, then the offense is entered into the profile, the social credit goes down. Regular violations of this kind will lead to the fact that a citizen will not even be able to leave the region, let alone another country. And no bank will give an unreliable representative of the nation a loan.







Among the offenses may also be overdue fines, violation of traffic rules, antisocial behavior. So far, the social rating does not work everywhere, it is being tested in several major cities, including Shanghai. It is worth noting that the locals were able to track their data - this can be done on a specialized resource. But this is the exception rather than the rule. Most often, people do not know what information the government has about them and what they are doing to it.



Assessing social security sometimes fails . So, for example, one of the students of a Chinese university was almost dismissed due to the low credit rating of his father. The problem was that the parent took a large loan for which he could not repay. In the end, he was put on the “black list”, it includes citizens who, in the opinion of the computer system, cannot be trusted. Moreover, this system has added to the lists of citizens with a “low social responsibility” not only this person, but also his son.



The latter was nearly kicked out of the school, after which the father began to look for ways to pay the loan to improve his social rating. The student continued to study, but the story became public. Despite a different attitude to personal information than in the West and the issue of citizen observation, the Chinese criticized such a system. After the government learned about the incident, officials were advised not to link the problems of fathers with the problems of children. “The opportunity to become a student of a prestigious university should not depend on the provision of parents, the main thing here is hard work and effort. Artificial restrictions on students' chances of studying at universities violate their right to education, ”the authors said in a note about the incident in the authoritative Chinese media, People's Daily.



As for education, China is actively introducing video surveillance systems in schools. Above the board is placed three cameras. They transmit the video stream to the server where the data is processed. The data is analyzed by a neural network that is able to track those who are distracted - for example, looking at birds outside the window or chatting with a neighbor.



In an ordinary situation, the teacher cannot keep track of everyone, but the AI ​​is quite capable of that. The computer system transmits data to the teacher about the unscrupulous student., And he takes action. Since the introduction of video surveillance in several schools, the performance has improved there - students are trying not to be distracted, because they understand that the teacher will still know everything thanks to his digital assistant.

Market monitoring systems continue to grow

No matter how human rights defenders treat the cases described above, monitoring systems in China continue to evolve. New technologies are emerging, the market is expanding. Accordingly, the state and private organizations provide significant funds for development.







Companies that yesterday were considered newcomers have become “unicorns” for a couple of years. An example is the growth of a startup’s capital, which just turned four years old from zero to $ 4.5 billion. The company, which has become a member of the AI ​​National Team, is now one of the world's largest tech start-ups.



Baidu, the largest corporation in China, is currently working on a “smart city” project, developing various kinds of services related to this topic. And the state allocates billions of dollars for development. Tencent and Alibaba, companies of roughly the same size and power of influence, are also developing similar technologies. Their capabilities are vast.



Tiandy, which supplies high-resolution color cameras, has become an international corporation in a few years. Now she sells her products in more than 60 countries of the world.



As far as one can understand, the Chinese government is not going to stop there; the monitoring system will be developed and improved. So, the young billionaires who stand behind video surveillance systems will become more and more.