China uses facial recognition on phones to track protesters

On Sunday, Zhang, 20, went to protests against China’s tough antiCOVID policy in Beijing dressed to make him feel inconspicuous, with a balaclava and goggles covering his face. When he felt that plainclothes police officers were following him, he went into a bush, changed into a new outfit and got rid of the police officers. At home at night he thought he had returned safely.

The police called the next day. They knew that Zhang had left from the geographic record on the young man’s smartphone, which identified him in the protest area. About 20 minutes after the call, three police officers came to his home and knocked on the door, although Zhang did not give the address.

Victims and human rights groups said in an interview with The New York Times that similar stories happened to protesters across China during this week of protests. Authorities seek to track, intimidate and arrest protesters, using advanced surveillance tools the Chinese state has built up over the past decade for times like the present, when popular dissatisfaction with the Chinese Communist Party is high.

Demonstrators hold sheets of paper to their faces and display protest phrases in Beijing, China, November 27. The Chinese government is using smartphone data to identify them Photo: Ng Han Guan/AP

Police used faces, phones and whistleblowers to identify those who took part in the protests. Typically, they put pressure on those checked to pledge not to protest again. Most of the time, protesters inexperienced in tracking are baffled by the way they have been spotted and, fearing repercussions, delete foreign apps like Telegram, which are used to spread images of protests abroad.

The surveillance system is one of the most sophisticated in the world. There are millions of cameras scattered around corners and at building entrances, with facial recognition software to identify residents. Another program analyzes the collected data and images.

While it’s no secret, the surveillance system seemed far off to many Chinese. It is most commonly used to track down political dissidents, ethnic minorities and migrant workers. Many citizens support the system on the grounds that if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to hide.

The interrogations of the last week could influence this idea. This is the first time Chinese surveillance has been used directly against large numbers of middleclass Chinese people in the country’s wealthiest cities. While many have experienced censorship — and this week showed they can circumvent it — a police raid on the home is less common and more intimidating.

“We hear stories of police officers showing up at people’s doorsteps asking where they have been during the protests, and this appears to be based on evidence gathered through mass surveillance,” said Alkan Akad, Amnesty’s China Research Fellow International. “China’s ‘Big Brother’ technology will never be shut down and the government hopes it will now prove its effectiveness in ending the protests,” he added.

The marches and protests are among the most widespread and overtly political since the 1989 Beijing military crackdown on Tiananmen Square, leaving many dead. Now the Chinese authorities can drown out protests with high technology, hitting and arresting organizers and the most dissatisfied. Others get away with it but face serious threats.

Monitor shows identification program used by China to track citizens, taken May 10, 2017 Photo: Gilles SabriŽ/NYT

Stories like Zhang’s are common. Though aware of facial recognition cameras dotted around public spaces in China, he downplayed phone trackers. After being interrogated at home and told not to attend another protest, police left his home.

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Without revealing his full name for fear of reprisals, Zhang said in an interview that the visit scared him. He felt the police were effective in containing the momentum the protests were creating. “It will be very difficult to mobilize people again,” he said. “At that point, people will come off the street.”

In other cases, the delivering person was the face, not the geolocation. Wang, who also did not give his name, said he went to the Beijing protests and received a warning call from police two days later. When the call was made, officers said he was identified using facial recognition.

Unlike other protesters, Wang did not cover his face with a hat or sunglasses and took off his medical mask at one point during the event. He said he wasn’t surprised the police were able to identify him, but felt uncomfortable using the technology. “I knew the risks of going to a protest like this,” he said. “If they want to find us, they definitely can.”

The call to the police only lasted 10 minutes, but the officer did his best to intimidate him. “He clearly said that there will be no second chance,” said the Chinese.

Chinese protesters at a vigil against Covid restrictive measures in Beijing, China. Image from November 27 Photo: Thomas Peter / Portal

After being arrested or stopped by police, many protesters avoided using VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) or other foreign apps like Telegram and Signal. The fear, they say, is because they are now on the authorities’ radar. The software they use on their smartphones could be monitored more closely, with more attention from the police and the risk of arrest.

Another protester arrested in the central Chinese city of Chengdu on Monday said he had his smartphone searched by police who saw that he had installed Telegram and other foreign apps. When he left prison, he deleted the apps.

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Some of the protesters attempted to counter surveillance using tactics similar to those used in Hong Kong in 2019. At protests this year, protesters tried to reveal the identity of the police just as the police worked to reveal them. A list containing the identities of around 60,000 Shanghai police officers stemming from a leak by Chinese Communist Party members in 2020 was circulated via Telegram groups this week. Some of the documents were corroborated by the New York Times and include the officers’ ID numbers, addresses, marital status, ethnicity, and height.

For many protesters, the shock of being identified acted as an intimidation tactic in its own right. Wang, a filmmaker in her 20s, said she joined a group of friends in Beijing on Sunday night. Together they covered their faces with medical masks, took a taxi several kilometers away and walked to the protest site. Despite being told to turn off their phones, they simply turned off the GPS and Face ID functions.

“We thought at the time that there were a lot of people. How could they find everyone? How could they muster the energy to catch every single one?” she said.

When several of his friends received calls or visits from the police, they were stunned. Some were forced to testify and cooperate in the investigation by going to the police station. “I think my friends, if there is a next time, they won’t dare to go,” Wang added.

Despite this, Wang escaped the surveillance network and was not intimidated by what was happening. That night she used a phone with a number that was not linked to any systems that could identify her, such as B. the country’s public health program, which has been tracking Covid cases and ensuring people in outbreak areas are tested regularly. “I’m still going; If the police find me, we’ll see,” she said. When asked if she would attend a public protest again, she added, “I just feel like you have to go.”