Video above: China's surveillance system used to monitor minority Uighur Muslims
Officials in China have apologised for releasing the photos of residents caught wearing their pyjamas in public on surveillance cameras.
Photos, the person’s name and their ID card were posted online by government officials in Suzhou, in the Anhui Province, with their behaviour described as “uncivilised.”
Other "bad behaviour" exposed online included "lying [on a bench] in an uncivilised manner", and handing out advertising flyers.
that the pyjama pictures prompted a backlash with residents going online to argue that the government had invaded privacy and pyjamas are acceptable.
Officials later "sincerely apologised" and promised to blur pictures in future, adding: "We wanted to put an end to uncivilised behaviour, but of course we should protect residents' privacy."
According to the , a tabloid controlled by the Communist Party of China, Suzhou is competing for the National Civilized City title -- a competition run by the government -- and banned residents from wearing pyjamas in public.
For more than a decade, China has been rolling out a mass surveillance systems through the Internet, cameras and other digital technologies. Part of the mass surveillance is a “social credit system” where the government keeps score of the “trustworthiness” of its 1.3 billion citizens. The government is then able to set rewards and punishments for people based on their score, for example, providing access to a fast lane at the airport or allowing people to rent an apartment deposit-free.
China has been accused of misusing this technology to illegally monitor the minority Muslim Uighurs. released last year detailed how Chinese authorities developed a mobile app for police to use, containing personal profile of Uighurs living in the Xinjiang province. Data is collected from China’s mass surveillance system.
Facial Recognition System concept. Source: Getty images
As the use of facial recognition technology is increasing worldwide, l have revealed the EU is considering a five year ban on facial recognition, giving regulators time to figure out how to prevent technology being abused.
Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said he supports a temporary ban.
“I think it is important that governments and regulations tackle it sooner rather than later and give a framework for it,” Pichai told a conference in Brussels, according to .
David Vaile, the executive director of the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre at the University of NSW, said although the Chinese use of facial recognition technology seems extreme, Australia has very little legal parameters for how this technology is used.
“Biometrics are often wrong and if something goes wrong, for example a system is hacked or the information is misused, Australians have very little legal recourse that counteracts the risk,” he said.
on Sunday that Australian developer Hoan Ton-That created a facial recognition app that allows users to take a picture of a person, upload it and see public photos of that person along with links to where the photo appeared.
Police in Indiana reportedly solved a case within 20 minutes of using the app.
Late last year, Victoria Police is using facial recognition technology to identify criminal suspects using camera technology known as iFace.
Last year the federal government proposed using a facial recognition system to verify that people watching pornography online are of legal age. Under the proposal from the Department of Home Affairs, a computer user’s face would be matched to images from official identity documents.
Mr Vaile said that Australia should take the European Union’s lead and be more cautious.
“Unlike a bankcard or a drivers license, you can’t replace your face if a data system is hacked or compromised. What’s worse is that you may never know if a system containing your biometric data is broken or has been hacked.”
