Cameras With "Skin Colour Analytics" In China Triggers Rights Concern

 

Washington : Chinese surveillance equipment maker Dahua is selling cameras with what it calls a "skin colour analytics" feature in Europe according to a report by the IPVM (Internet Protocol Video Market), a US-based security and surveillance industry research group, as cited by Voice of America.  

In the July 31 IPVM report accessed by VOA Mandarin, "The company defended the analytics as being a 'basic feature of a smart security solution.'"

VoA is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America, which produces digital, TV, and radio content that is shared worldwide.



In February 2021, IPVM and the Los Angeles Times reported that Dahua provided a video surveillance system with "real-time Uyghur warnings" to the Chinese police that included eyebrow size, skin colour and ethnicity.

IPVM's 2018 statistical report shows that since 2016, Dahua and another Chinese video surveillance company, Hikvision, have won contracts worth USD 1 billion from the government of China's Xinjiang province, a centre of Uyghur life.



Dahua's ICC Open Platform guide for "human body characteristics" includes "skin colour/complexion," according to the report. In what Dahua calls a "data dictionary," the company says that the "skin colour types" that Dahua analytic tools would target are "yellow," "black," and "white." VOA Mandarin verified this on Dahua's Chinese website, VOA reported.

The IPVM report also says that skin colour detection is mentioned in the "Personnel Control" category, a feature Dahua touts as part of its Smart Office Park solution intended to provide security for large corporate campuses in China.

"Basically what these video analytics do is that, if you turn them on, then the camera will automatically try and determine the skin colour of whoever passes, whoever it captures in the video footage," VOA quoted Charles Rollet, the co-author of the IPVM report. 

"So that means the camera is going to be guessing or attempting to determine whether the person in front of it … has black, white or yellow, in their words, skin colour," he added.

The IPVM report said that Dahua is selling cameras with the skin colour analytics feature in three European nations. Each has a recent history of racial tension, Germany, France and the Netherlands.

Dahua said its skin tone analysis capability was an essential function in surveillance technology.