New reports suggest that the government in China has increased the surveillance on the people since at least February this year. As coronavirus concerns raise alarm across the world China is said to be installing surveillance camera outside people's home and developing an application to analyse the movements.
The reports say that the government has not issued any order or specific law to govern the installations, yet the devices are a part of people's regular life. Present data suggest that China has 8 of the 10 most surveilled cities in the world. In the pandemic situation, the surveillance has changed. People have recorded that the cameras were being installed outside front doors and sometimes inside the homes.
China is also said to be recording the citizen's movement throughout the day. With the increasing knowledge of Artificial Intelligence and facial recognition, there are new ways in which people are being checked on by the authorities.
News reports from US media
According to the CNN article on Tuesday, April 28, three people have reported to the media that they experienced being under constant surveillance in China. There have been social media posts that recorded similar instances by the citizens. According to the state broadcaster CCTV, in 2017 it was recorded that 20 million cameras were installed throughout China. The country has continued to increase surveillance throughout the years.
The authorities are ensuring that the people are quarantined by using the technology. In recent times, China has ensured an application is downloaded in the phones. The cameras around the cities are also seen to analyse the distance maintained by the people. Also, there are drone techs in the cities to maintain social distancing but people have raised their concern about drone surveillance.
According to CNN, a post on Weibo by a sub-district office in Nanjing, in eastern Jiangsu province, the surveillance outside people's home helps in monitoring the people more closely as they are being quarantined. They also said that it "helped save personnel expenditures."
There have been records from several other cities in China which has seen companies providing services to the government in increasing the surveillance in the country. But, there are no official records that are published that show the number of camera in the country that is being used to surveil the people.
