Huawei tested camera system that recognizes Uyghurs and can match the Chinese government

Huawei worked with facial recognition company Megvii in 2018 on a camera system that can identify an Uyghur in a crowd using artificial intelligence. Once the system identified an Uyghur, it can send an alarm to the Chinese government.

The camera system scans faces in a crowd and estimates the age, gender and origin of all individuals, The Washington Post writes, based on a Huawei report. When the system identifies the face of an Uyghur, it can trigger an ‘Uyghur alarm’. This alert could potentially be sent to the Chinese government, according to the newspaper.

According to the report, it is a system with equipment from Huawei and facial recognition software from Megvii. The purpose of the report was to investigate whether the two companies’ camera systems can work well with other surveillance software packages to enable ‘seamless public surveillance’. For the system, Huawei provided cameras, servers, network equipment and other hardware and software, the newspaper writes.

The report further states that the system can take snapshots of citizens. When recognizing the face of an Uyghur, the system can also show ten seconds of footage from before and after. The report did not provide details on whether the system has actually been used in practice or not. The paper does note that the New York Times previously reported a similar facial recognition system to monitor Uyghurs. This system is said to be used by several Chinese police forces and used half a million times in one city to scan for Uyghurs.

Until recently, the report was posted on Huawei’s website, but was taken offline when it asked questions to Huawei and Megvii, according to the newspaper. The newspaper was tipped off about the report by research collective IPVM. Both companies have confirmed to the newspaper that the report is genuine. According to a Huawei spokesperson, this is a test and the camera system has not been used in practice. Huawei would only supply equipment “for such tests” and would not provide “adapted” algorithms or programs itself. Megvii says their facial recognition systems are not designed to target or label ethnic groups.