När en affärsmän återvände hem från en affärsresa kontaktades han av polisen som beordrade honom att stanna inomhus, isolerad i minst 14 dagar. Polisen hade spårat hans bils registreringsskyltar Wenzhou där några fall av smitta konstaterats. Det är bara ett av flera exempel på den kinesiska diktaturens övervakning av sina medborgare.

Coronavirusets utbrott har inte bara alarmerat världens olika hälsomyndigheter. Utbrottet har också avslöjat vidden av övervakningen i Kina, skriver Reuters. Tillbaka till affärsmannen – efter 12 dagar var han uttråkad och lämnade sin bostad:

After around 12 days, he was bored and went out early. This time, not only did the police contact him, so did his boss. He had been spotted near Hangzhou’s West Lake by a camera with facial recognition technology, and the authorities had alerted his company as a warning.

“I was a bit shocked by the ability and efficiency of the mass surveillance network. They can basically trace our movements with the AI technology and big data at any time and any place,” said the man, who asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions.

Reuters

Utbrottet har också lett till att kinesiska företag erbjudit myndigheterna mer övervakning med nya lösningar:

The industry ministry sent a notice to China’s AI companies and research institutes this week calling on them to help fight the outbreak. Companies have responded with a flurry of announcements touting the capabilities of their technology.

Facial recognition firm Megvii said on Tuesday it had developed a new way to spot and identify people with fevers, with support from the industry and science ministries. Its new “AI temperature measurement system”, which detects temperature with thermal cameras and uses body and facial data to identify individuals, is already being tested in a Beijing district.

Reuters