Glance up while strolling through parts of downtown Hong Kong and, chances are, you\u2019ll notice the glassy black lens of a surveillance camera trained on the city\u2019s crowded streets. <\/p>\n
And that sight will become more common in the coming years, as the city\u2019s police pursue an ambitious campaign to install thousands of cameras to elevate their surveillance capabilities. <\/p>\n
Though it consistently ranks among the world\u2019s safest big cities, police in the Asian financial hub say the new cameras are needed to fight crime \u2013 and have raised the possibility of equipping them with powerful facial recognition and artificial intelligence tools. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s sparked alarm among some experts who see it as taking Hong Kong one step closer to the pervasive surveillance systems of mainland China, warning of the technology\u2019s repressive potential. <\/p>\n
Hong Kong police had previously set a target of installing 2,000 new surveillance cameras this year, and potentially more than that each subsequent year. The force plans to eventually introduce facial recognition to these cameras, security chief Chris Tang told local media in July \u2013 adding that police could use AI in the future to track down suspects. <\/p>\n
Tang and the Hong Kong police have repeatedly pointed to other jurisdictions, including Western democracies, that also make wide use of surveillance cameras for law enforcement. For instance, Singapore has 90,000 cameras and the United Kingdom has more than seven million, Tang told local newspaper Sing Tao Daily in June. <\/p>\n
And, some critics say, what sets Hong Kong apart from other places is its political environment \u2013 which has seen an ongoing crackdown on political dissent, as it draws closer to authoritarian mainland China. <\/p>\n
Following unprecedented and often violent anti-government protests that rocked the city in 2019, local and central authorities imposed sweeping national security laws that have been used to jail activists, journalists and political opponents, and target civil society groups and outspoken media outlets. <\/p>\n
Hong Kong\u2019s leaders have said the laws are needed to restore stability after the protests in the nominally semi-autonomous city, and argue their legislation is similar to other national security laws around the world. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe difference is how the technology is being used,\u201d said Samantha Hoffman, a nonresident fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research who has studied China\u2019s use of technology for security and propaganda. <\/p>\n
Places like the United States and the UK may have problems with how they implement that technology, too \u2013 but \u201cthis is fundamentally different\u2026 It has to do specifically with the system of government, as well as the way that the party state\u2026 uses the law to maintain its own power,\u201d said Hoffman. <\/p>\n
Hong Kong has more than 54,500 public CCTV cameras used by government bodies \u2013 about seven cameras per 1,000 people, according to an estimate by Comparitech, a UK-based technology research firm. <\/p>\n
That puts it about on par with New York City and still far behind London (13 per 1,000 people), but nowhere near mainland Chinese cities, which average about 440 cameras per 1,000 people. <\/p>\n
Fears of mainland-style surveillance and policing caused notable angst during the 2019 protests, which broadened to encompass many Hong Kongers\u2019 fears that the central Chinese government would encroach on the city\u2019s limited autonomy. <\/p>\n
Protesters on the streets covered their faces with masks and goggles to prevent identification, at times smashing or covering security cameras. At one point, they tore down a \u201csmart\u201d lamp post, even though Hong Kong authorities said it was only meant to collect data on traffic, weather and pollution. <\/p>\n
At the time, activist and student leader Joshua Wong \u2013 who is now in prison on charges related to his activism and national security \u2013 said, \u201cCan the Hong Kong government ensure that they will never install facial recognition tactics into the smart lamp post? \u2026 They can\u2019t promise it and they won\u2019t because of the pressure from Beijing.\u201d <\/p>\n
Across the border, the model of surveillance that protesters feared is ubiquitous \u2013 with China often celebrating the various achievements of its real-time facial recognition algorithms, and exporting surveillance technology to countries around the world. <\/p>\n
According to an analysis by Comparitec, eight of the top 10 most surveilled cities in the world per capita are in China, where facial recognition is an inescapable part of daily life \u2013 from the facial scans required to register a new phone number, to facial recognition gates in some subway stations. <\/p>\n
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the government mandated a QR \u201chealth code\u201d to track people\u2019s health status, which in some places required facial scans. <\/p>\n
But the technology has also been used in more repressive ways. <\/p>\n
In the far-western region of Xinjiang, Beijing has used cameras to monitor members of the Muslim-majority Uyghur population. And when unprecedented nationwide protests broke out in late 2022 against the government\u2019s strict Covid policies, police used facial recognition along with other sophisticated surveillance tools to track down protesters, The New York Times found. <\/p>\n
\u201c(China\u2019s) public security surveillance systems \u2026 tend to track lists of particular people, maybe people with a history of mental illness or participation in protests, and make a note of people who are marked as being troublesome in some way,\u201d Hoffman said. <\/p>\n
The systems then \u201ctrack those specific people across the city and across its surveillance network.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s fair to anticipate that the use of CCTV and facial recognition technology in Hong Kong will begin to look a lot like those in mainland China over time,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Hong Kong police have argued the cameras help fight crime, pointing to a pilot program earlier this year of 15 cameras installed in one district. Already, those cameras have provided evidence and clues for at least six crimes, Tang told Sing Tao Daily \u2013 and police will prioritize high-risk or high-crime areas for the remaining cameras. <\/p>\n
The first five months of this year saw 3% more crimes than the same period last year, Sing Tao reported. <\/p>\n
When considering AI-equipped cameras, \u201cthe police will definitely comply with relevant laws,\u201d the force added. <\/p>\n
Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London, warned that the new cameras could be \u201cused for political repression\u201d if they are employed under the \u201cdraconian\u201d national security law. <\/p>\n
Unless authorities assure the public that the cameras won\u2019t be used for that purpose, \u201cthis is likely to be a further step in making Hong Kong law enforcement closer to how it is done on the Chinese mainland,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Other experts argued it\u2019s far too soon to say what the impact will be in Hong Kong, since authorities have not laid out in detail how they would use the technology. <\/p>\n
\u201cHong Kong law doesn\u2019t, in all measures, mirror what happens in mainland China,\u201d said Normann Witzleb, an associate professor in data protection and privacy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, <\/p>\n
But that\u2019s why it\u2019s all the more important for authorities to address a raft of yet-unanswered questions, he said. <\/p>\n
For instance, it remains unclear whether Hong Kong will deploy live facial recognition that constantly scans the environment, or whether the tech will only be applied to past footage when certain crimes occur or when legal authorization is granted. <\/p>\n
Witzleb also raised the question of who would have the power to authorize the use of facial recognition, and what situations may warrant it. Would it be used to prosecute crime and locate suspects, for example \u2013 or for other public safety measures like identifying missing people? <\/p>\n
And, Witzleb added, will police run the technology through their existing image databases, or use it more broadly with images held by other public authorities, or even publicly available imagery of anyone? <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to design guidelines for those systems that take proper recognition of the potential benefits that they have, but that also acknowledge they\u2019re not foolproof, and that they have the potential to interfere with (people\u2019s) rights in serious ways,\u201d Witzleb said. <\/p>\n
Regardless of how facial recognition might be used, both Hoffman and Witzleb said the presence of that technology and the increased number of security cameras may make Hong Kongers feel less free under the ever-watchful eye of the police. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you feel like you\u2019re being monitored, that affects your behavior and your feelings of freedom as well,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cI think that there\u2019s an element of state coercion that doesn\u2019t need to have to do with the effectiveness of the technology itself.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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