Tom Loftus
The Wall Street Journal
July 5, 2011
A massive new video surveillance project in China sheds light on how Western tech companies do business in places where technology is sometimes used for political purposes. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Chinese city of Chongqing plans to build and maintain a video surveillance network with the help of Cisco, the world’s biggest maker of networking equipment.
Other companies tied to the project include H-P and Alabama-based Intergraph, a developer of software that analyzes video feeds for unusual situations such as fires (or gathering crowds).
The story contrasts city official claims that the technology will be used to prevent crime, with complaints from human-rights advocates that surveillance footage has been used in the past against protesters in Xinjiang and Tibet.
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