Chinese tech firms chastised for spying in Europe, according to new report

China: Human rights groups have heavily criticised Chinese technology companies such as Huawei, ZTE Corps, and Hikvision for providing surveillance technology not only for authoritarian regimes but also for espionage activities at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party.

According to Voices Against Autocracy, European cities are the latest victims of China's subversive digital authoritarianism tactics.

The US government classified five Chinese telecom companies as dangerous threats to national security in 2020.

The US government designated five Chinese telecommunications companies as national security threats for espionage in 2020. Given China's history of tech spying in Africa via companies such as Huawei and countless others, relying on improved Chinese technologies could prove to be a costly mistake for European cities.

According to critics of Autocracy's research, Huawei's smart city and safe city initiatives are vulnerable to cyberattacks and have insufficient security setups.

Huawei has made significant strides within Europe by using the government's contract to purchase security cameras with facial recognition technology in Serbia.

Numerous organisations, however, have urged the Serbian government to be open about any potential Chinese government acquisition of sensitive biometric data pertaining to Serbian citizens.

According to the data, the 2017 strategic cooperation agreement for safe cities resulted in the purchase of at least 8000 cameras.

Furthermore, Spain has been on a constant drive to welcome Smart City projects into the country. Rivas-Vaciamadrid, a city on the outskirts of Madrid, has partnered with Huawei to modernise tech infrastructure aimed at assisting policing facilities and reducing crime in the city.

According to media reports, Huawei's telecom kits contain chips that are extremely vulnerable to backdoor tampering, giving governments access to sensitive information they would not otherwise share.

As public concern grows about China's security apparatus, the surveillance state has met with rare opposition from its own subjects. People are becoming more sceptical of the government and public institutions as they see how their own data is being used against them.

Earlier in June, a nationwide outcry erupted in response to local authorities' apparent misuse of COVID-19 tracking technology. (ANI)