Chongqing, a city in southwest China, has been identified as the most surveilled city in the world, with 2.58 million cameras covering its 15.35 million residents—equivalent to one camera for every six people. The ranking, compiled by UK-based research firm Comparitech, places eight Chinese cities in the top ten, with London ranking sixth and Atlanta, Georgia, tenth.
The city's surveillance system uses facial recognition technology to scan faces in real time, matching them against a police database. If a match exceeds a 60% threshold, officers are alerted. This system recently helped police capture a suspect in a 2002 murder case after an alert was triggered at a local square.
Chongqing is part of China's 'Sharp Eyes' pilot scheme, which aims to combat crime by monitoring citizens and ranking their trustworthiness. The Chinese Ministry of Public Security anticipates 626 million CCTV cameras nationwide by next year. However, critics argue that such widespread surveillance violates international privacy standards, as it collects biometric data from broad populations without specific links to wrongdoing.
Maya Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, described the systems as a 'race to the bottom of privacy,' warning that the depth and intrusiveness of Chinese mass surveillance may be unprecedented. Meanwhile, concerns about surveillance are growing elsewhere, with London's Transport for London and a private operator at King's Cross facing backlash over data collection and facial recognition use without public consent.
Paul Wiles, the UK's biometrics commissioner, noted that the UK is approaching similar levels of surveillance as China and called for new legislation to govern the use of such technologies. In May, San Francisco became the first major US city to ban facial recognition technology, with Supervisor Aaron Peskin stating, 'We can have security without being a security state.'
