article says the level of surveillance carried out with this app in Xinjiang exceeds what is allowed by the law in China
Many—perhaps all—of the mass surveillance practices described in this report appear to be contrary to Chinese law.
Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App
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Re: Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App
#12Re: Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App
#13Great article for getting a sense of what is of interest to a state. China has its own issues, but as a sample of what a given state considers interesting, it's a map for detecting how other countries likely collect the same information with some pretense of discretion. I'm sure we're all "shocked, shocked!" to have just found this out.
Re: Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App
#14Really important article IMO.
Re: Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App
#15It would be helpful to get some true, short stories about the path from harmless activity -> data collection -> re-education camp to show people in the rest of the world why their techie friends are always harping on the dangers of online tracking and the erosion of privacy. This is the depressing doomsday scenario we're all trying to avoid. It's already real and it's happening in a massive country with an eye towards expansion.
Re: Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App
#16It's too bad this is probably going to be flagged to death (or at least off the front page). Of all the articles about Xinjiang and Chinese human rights issues, this is one of rare ones that's right up HN's alley, because of its focus on the details of the technology of mass surveillance.
Why would it be flagged?
[deleted]
Re: Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App
#17It's too bad this is probably going to be flagged to death (or at least off the front page). Of all the articles about Xinjiang and Chinese human rights issues, this is one of rare ones that's right up HN's alley, because of its focus on the details of the technology of mass surveillance.
It's been one hour and already made it to the RSS feed. Maybe our Chinese overlords are sleeping, but I think it's safe.
Re: Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App
#18> The IJOP center also sends officials to investigate cases when an individual’s phone, ID card, or vehicle has gone “off-grid.” Screen 15 displays the prompt sent to officials requesting them to investigate a phone number that the system has lost track of. The officer is prompted to probe, using a drop-down menu, why the phone went off-grid. The officer is then asked to note whether the person questioned seems suspicious and whether the case needs further investigation.
> ...
> The IJOP system also alerts officials when people are using phones that do not belong to them, giving the officials information about the case and the personal particulars of the person who is registered to the phone account, such as their ID number (see screen 19). It is unclear how the system “knows” that a person is using a phone that does not belong to them.[80] Officials are again required to log the reasons for the mismatch and decide if the person is suspicious.[81]
This technique especially scary for people concerned about privacy, because it means passive attempts to avoid surveillance will invite more direct invasions.
Re: Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App
#19It's too bad this is probably going to be flagged to death (or at least off the front page). Of all the articles about Xinjiang and Chinese human rights issues, this is one of rare ones that's right up HN's alley, because of its focus on the details of the technology of mass surveillance.
Already off the front page. The brigading is strong against this one.
Re: Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App
#20It would be helpful to get some true, short stories about the path from harmless activity -> data collection -> re-education camp to show people in the rest of the world why their techie friends are always harping on the dangers of online tracking and the erosion of privacy. This is the depressing doomsday scenario we're all trying to avoid. It's already real and it's happening in a massive country with an eye toward…
What if there aren't any such stories?