Throughout 2019, massive protests against the extradition bill take place in Hong Kong. According to it, the government could extradite to China local residents suspected of crimes on the territory of the Celestial Empire.
During the protests, a general election, the creation of a commission to verify the legality of police actions, and an amnesty for arrested protesters were added to the list of protesters' demands.
Hong Kongers are not afraid of the police. Therefore, videos of throwing Molotov cocktails, cutting down lampposts and clashes with police are spreading across the network. However, this topic has been heard from the beginning of the shares.
Much more interesting is how technology helps both parties achieve their goals.
Face recognition and identity uncertainty
During the riots, the protesters paint over the camera lenses with aerosol cans, demolish the pillars with them and put on masks.
Promotional video:
First of all, the opposition is unhappy with the presence of smart lamp posts in the city.
Videos can be found online of how protesters cut them down. The structures were delivered in July. On August 24, protesters demolished about 20 camera poles in Kowloon Bay.
This is not a protest against extradition. According to the demonstrators, cameras with intelligent face recognition are being deployed to spy on unwanted people. The organizer of the protest, Ventus Lau, assures that the authorities are collecting biometric information from the protesters and passing it on to the Chinese authorities.
Expert Craig Choi sees the processing of protesters' biometric data as the main problem in this situation. It is not clear what exactly the database is formed from the biometrics of people, how it is used and how long the data is stored.
“There are no restrictions on cross-border data transfer. All collected information can be sent to China. It's like throwing a stone into the sea. You don't know how they will use your data, Choi says.
So many cameras?
Not. They are being actively installed, but Hong Kong is not even included in the Top 20 cities in terms of the number of installed video surveillance devices. According to research firm Comparitech, the most watched cities are in China. The leader is Chongqing, where there are 168 cameras per 1,000 people.
There are 50 thousand CCTV cameras installed in Hong Kong. This is 1/10 of their number in London. Another 400 smart lamp posts are planned to be installed in the near future.
An ambitious protester catcher
The position believes that the Face ++ software from the Chinese startup Megvii is used to operate the face-recognition cameras. It was founded by alumni of Tsinghua University in 2011. It is considered one of the leaders in the development of artificial intelligence in China. The company's valuation exceeds $ 4 billion. The company is preparing for an IPO (initial public offering), so it tries to inflate its own price by successfully completing large orders.
The company has a mixed reputation. She deals with commercial orders, but can also cooperate with the state. Among the clients of the startup is the Chinese government, writes Business Insider. The company's software helps law enforcement agencies. According to Bloomberg, Face ++ has been used in more than 260 cities and has helped police arrest over 10,000 people.
At the same time, there are questions to the conscientiousness of the developers and the purpose of the application. According to the information of the same Bloomberg publication, the startup may be on the US blacklist for abuse of the ability to identify people.
Attacks by American companies on Chinese companies can be viewed in different ways. The Chinese media say this is just envy and backs up the argument with numbers: Chinese companies have almost double the number of patent applications for 5G technologies than American ones. Whether the US claims against Megvii are substantiated is unknown.
Not all tech companies are willing to participate in this. Hong Kong-based TickTack Technology Limited supplied spy equipment components. When the protests flared up, she broke the contract and left the program, taking part in the installation of 50 poles out of 200 announced. The team is worried that people have stopped trusting tech companies and have decided not to take one of the two rival parties.
Is everything so clear?
Not. The demonstrators' main opponents deny the fact of surveillance and the use of technology to suppress protests. Facial recognition software developer Megvii does not acknowledge that its software is used specifically to identify protesters.
Innovation and Technology Secretary Nicholas Yang has denied that lamp posts are being used against protesters. “August 24 is a black day for the Hong Kong tech industry (then a protest took place in Kowloon Bay - Author's note). Some people ignored the facts and opted for conspiracy theory, claiming that smart lamp posts are a threat to people's privacy. We were clean and transparent from the very beginning, but in return we receive damage. We are very disappointed,”the politician said.
Surveillance in messengers
In addition to the streets, the police monitor the activity of protesters on social networks and instant messengers. On platforms for communication, the situation is no less tense. A 22-year-old student was arrested for being the administrator of a public chat room for protesters in a popular messenger blocked in Russia. Now the community is blocked, and the organizer can receive up to 7 years in prison.
The behavior of protesters in open areas is being monitored for a reason. In the same public chats and in other open areas, they de-anonymized police officers and their loved ones. This forces law enforcement officials to hide faces and numbers during actions.
Police search
The policemen also came to the attention of the "big brother". The HKmap.live app allowed tracking the movement of police officers in Hong Kong. It was available on the App Store. In October this year, the application was removed from the stock. Complaints have been received against him, allegedly the software allows to ambush police officers and commit crimes where there are fewer law enforcement officers than in other locations.
Apple policies allow you to remove an application from the catalog if it poses a threat to society or contributes to a violation of the law, according to Reuters. HKmap.live fell under such a law.
The app's developer, who remains anonymous, disagreed with the Cupertino-based company's decision. According to him, protesters are taking to the streets for freedom, and blocking HKmap.live will prevent them from defending their rights.
Apple CEO Tim Cook commented on app blocking: “It's no secret that technology can be used for good or for evil. This case is no different. The application in question made it possible to obtain data on the whereabouts of the police, hot spots of the protest, and more. By itself, this information is not dangerous. However, over the past few days, we have received credible information from the Hong Kong Bureau of Cybersecurity and Technology Crimes, as well as from users in Hong Kong, that the app has been maliciously used to target specific employees with the aim of using violence and attacking property that is not protected by the police. This application violates the laws of Hong Kong."
The situation in Hong Kong has proven three points.
- technology has reached a new level and can be used for or against a political regime. This has already been shown by Facebook, which transferred user data from Cambridge Analytica for use in Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The story with Hong Kong is even more graphic.
- social media is powerful and law enforcement is looking to control people's behavior there.
- privacy remains one of the top concerns in the technology industry. Residents of Hong Kong, or any other city in the world, do not know what is being done with their biometric data and whether the collected information can be turned against them.
Apparently, science fiction writers were right: technology will determine the future of countries and the world. Hong Kong is an example of how they can be used to destroy. At both sides.