Chinese police officers are adding a new tool to their arsenal: facial recognition glasses. As hundreds of millions of people begin traveling for the Lunar New Year holiday, police are using the new technology, which is capable of “highly effective screening” of crowds for fugitives traveling under false pretenses. China is already a global leader in using cutting-edge surveillance technologies based on artificial intelligence. The devices will allow officers to peer into places that fixed cameras aren’t scanning and to respond more quickly. According to People’s Daily newspaper, the glasses have already helped police at Zhengzhou’s East Railway Station capture seven people wanted in connection with major criminal cases, and 26 others who were traveling using other people’s identities. William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International, said the technology will also make it easier for authorities to track political dissidents and profile ethnic minorities.
“The potential to give individual police officers facial-recognition technology in sunglasses could eventually make China’s surveillance state all the more ubiquitous,” he said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Thanks for reading InsideHook. Sign up for our daily newsletter and be in the know.
