Zoom In On Privacy

According to statistics from consultancy firm IHS Markit, China has installed 176 million surveillance cameras in both public and private areas, and the number is expected to hit 626 million in three years. Surveillance cameras are installed at home mainly for security or to keep an eye on children when parents are at work. Cameras at home, however, have fallen prey to rampant hacking activities thanks to loopholes including product defects, weak protection in the cloud and weak passwords. A growing number of private moments at home have been publicly exposed, and even sold to porn programme providers, forming a complete industrial chain. In June 2017, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine announced that 80 percent of surveillance cameras in China were prone to security loopholes, including several of the country’s top brands. The low market entry criteria for camera producers, coupled with the absence of a comprehensive security standard have contributed to the prevalence of invasions of privacy.