Security News > 2022 > July > Calls for bans on Chinese CCTV makers Hikvision, Dahua expand
A group of politicians and lawmakers in the UK have backed a campaign to ban the sale of CCTV systems made by companies alleged to introduce potential security issues as well as being linked to human rights abuses in China.
Organized by campaign group Big Brother Watch, the letter said that partly Chinese state-owned CCTV manufacturers Hikvision and Dahua should be banned from sale or use in the UK. Both manufacturers are banned from trading in the US, owing both to security concerns and alleged evidence of their use in so-called "Re-education" camps in Xinjiang, where China is accused of detaining an estimated 1 million Uyghurs and subjecting them to abuse, torture, and forced sterilization, the campaigners said.
In total 67 parliamentarians said they "Condemn involvement" in what they called "Technology-enabled human rights abuses in China" and called for a ban on the tech being sold or used in the UK. They also called for "An independent national review of the scale, capabilities, ethics and rights impact of modern CCTV in the UK.".
The MPs' statement follows a six-month investigation involving thousands of Freedom of Information requests by Big Brother Watch, which found that the majority of public bodies use CCTV cameras made by Hikvision or Dahua, including 73 percent of councils across the UK, 57 percent of secondary schools in England, six out of 10 NHS Trusts, as well as universities and police forces.
Neither Hikvision nor Dahua actually operate the cameras that are sold in the UK, but the ethics of data-gathering by the state more generally, regardless of vendor, is also up for debate.
Last year, the Foreign Affairs Committee published a report calling for surveillance companies like Hikvision to be banned from the UK. "The Committee recommends that the government forbids surveillance companies like Hikvision - which provide surveillance equipment to the detention camps - from operating in the UK. Hikvision cameras currently operate throughout the UK, in leisure centres and even schools," it said.
News URL
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/07/05/uk_ban_hikvision_dahua/