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

Habré quite often publishes articles and news about citizen monitoring systems that are actively used in China. In fact, this country is ahead of the rest regarding the tracking of what the inhabitants of cities (to a lesser extent villages) are doing. Keeping in mind the population of this country, one may not be surprised at the billions of budgets of projects for the implementation of video surveillance systems.

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

CCTV Billionaires

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

He founded his own company in 1994, while CCTV cameras were an extremely rare occurrence in China (and not only there). Now, of course, these devices can be found almost everywhere (someone finds them even in their home with due diligence, but that's another story). In China, video surveillance systems are ubiquitous; the state is using cameras to track both traffic violators and lazy students in schools.

For a quarter of a century, Dai Lin has turned from a man who every day got to his own office on a bicycle (now many rich people do it, but it's more like a fad) to a businessman with his own luxury car and driver. Lin was the last of four billionaires who made their fortunes in video surveillance. The total capital of these four people is about $ 12 billion, in any case, according to the compilers of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index .

Cameras everywhere

As for the statistics of video surveillance systems, in 2016 in China at least 176 million cameras worked that “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 considerable part of this amount was made by video surveillance systems. In 2020, the government plans to make video surveillance systems ubiquitous by 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 contribute to the monitoring of citizens. In almost any innovative business of the Celestial Empire related to 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 for analysis to the data center. Users themselves are far from always aware of the presence of such a module.

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



Opponents believe that China’s smart technologies do not contribute to the development of democratic freedoms, but serve the goals of a government that has the opportunity to control everyone. And the possibilities of officials are increasing every day.

Authorities have repeatedly tried to refute this point of view. At a Davos forum, the Chinese Foreign Minister said statements regarding the use of monitoring systems as Big Brothers are unfounded. Representatives of Chinese technology companies involved in such developments either do not comment on anything or talk about the benefits of the technologies being created. In particular, a spokeswoman for Alibaba, the company behind the City Brain project, said the system is evolutionary for areas such as traffic management. In addition, he believes that video surveillance systems can significantly reduce the response time of 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 for assessing citizens according to their degree of trustworthiness. 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 on the ground. It takes into account certain details of a citizen's social life and his financial actions. On this basis , a “trustworthiness rating” is formed, which determines for the Chinese the possibility of obtaining such benefits as international travel, education, insurance and loans.

“Good” members of the company can receive discounts on electricity, rent things without collateral, and even receive a reduced interest on a bank loan. Chinese dating site Baihe even promotes the accounts of good citizens, leaving the “bad” ones somewhere below the rating.

On the streets, compliance with traffic rules (both by drivers and pedestrians) is also monitored. And not only law enforcement officers, but also all the same video surveillance systems. Moreover, the Chinese themselves are quite satisfied with the innovation. One of them told the BBC , said : "I have a feeling that in the last six months the behavior of people is getting better and better. For example, now we always stop at the wheel before pedestrian crossings. If you don’t stop, you will lose points. At first we were worried about the loss of points, but now we are used to it. ”

As for the punishments for the unconscious, they are enough. An example is an attempt by a student’s parent to get a student ID card in the subway. Such a ticket costs several times less than usual. If the offender is caught, then misconduct is entered into the profile, social credit decreases. Regular violations of this kind will lead to the fact that a citizen will not even be able to travel outside the region, not to mention another country. And not a single bank will give a loan to an unreliable representative of the nation.



Among the misconduct may also be overdue fines, violation of traffic rules, asocial behavior. So far, the social rating does not work everywhere, it is tested in several major cities, including Shanghai. It is worth noting that local residents got the opportunity 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 with it.

Social security assessment sometimes fails. So, for example, one of the students at a Chinese university was nearly expelled due to the low credit rating of his father. The problem was that the parent took a large loan, which he could not pay. In the end, he got into the "black list", it includes citizens who, according to the computer system, can not be trusted. Moreover, this system included in the lists of citizens with "low social responsibility" not only this person, but also his son.

The latter was almost kicked out of the school, after which his 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 and the issue of monitoring citizens, than in the West, the Chinese criticized such a system. After the government found out about what had happened, officials were advised not to connect the problems of fathers with the problems of children. “The opportunity to become a student at a prestigious university should not depend on the well-being of parents, the main thing here is hard work and effort. Artificial restrictions on students' chances of studying at universities violate their educational rights, ”the authors said in a note about the incident in the reputable Chinese media People's Daily.

With regard to education, China is actively introducing video surveillance systems in schools. Three cameras are placed above the board. They transmit the video stream to the server where the data is processed. A neural network is engaged in data analysis, which is able to track those who are distracted - for example, looking at the birds outside the window or chatting with a neighbor.

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

The market for monitoring systems continues to grow

No matter how human rights defenders relate to 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, considered yesterday as newcomers, have become “unicorns” in a couple of years. An example is the growth of startup capital, which barely four years old from zero to $ 4.5 billion. A company that has become a member of the AI ​​National Team is now one of the largest technology startups in the world.

The largest corporation in China, Baidu, 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 about the same size and power of influence, are also developing similar technologies. Their capabilities are very extensive.

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

As far as you can understand, the Chinese government is not going to stop there, the monitoring system will develop and improve. And that means that there will be more and more young billionaires who are behind video surveillance systems.