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Ecuador is Fighting Crime Using Chinese Surveillance Technology (scmp.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

Ecuador has introduced a security system using monitoring technology from China, including facial recognition, as it tries to bring down its crime rate and improve emergency management, according to state-run Xinhua news agency. From a report: A network of cameras has been installed across the South American nation's 24 provinces -- keeping watch on its population of 16.4 million people -- using a system known as the ECU911 Integrated Security Service, Xinhua reported. Used by the country's police, armed forces and fire brigade, it went into operation in November 2016 and has an emergency response and monitoring system.

35 comments

  1. This is good since the two orphans... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    I know from Ecuador had limbs ruined by Communists there. One was a five year-old girl that had her right arm chopped off. the other was an eight (IIRC) year-old boy that had his legs broken so badly and not given medical care so he'll never walk again. A coworker adopted the two of them and our church is helping him, but it's still a struggle for him. He's a damn saint for basically giving up most of him free time to help them.

    1. Re: This is good since the two orphans... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My church took in three children that Communist rebels crippled in Colombia near the Ecuador border. Itâ(TM)s sad how the Communists hurt children.

    2. Re:This is good since the two orphans... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      real communists wouldn't do that. that sounds more like something the us army would do.

    3. Re:This is good since the two orphans... by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      It's not out of the question that China is supporting Communist rebels in Latin America to mess with the US and out of a nostalgia for the good old days when Mao was murdering millions.

      E.g. they do/did in the Philippines

      http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/9...

      China, long suspected of aiding Philippine communist rebels, is now a capitalist country from which the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), or its armed wing, New People's Army (NPA), could no longer expect support, a spokesperson for President Duterte said.

      "You've been left behind. China has left you behind," said former human rights lawyer Harry Roque, now Malacañang spokesperson.

      The rebellion being waged by CPP and NPA, Roque said, "has gone on for so long that China has become the best in capitalism" but Philippine communist rebels "are still Maoists."

      "What is that?" Roque said. "Move on," he said, addressing himself to communist rebel leaders.

      Roque said Chinese communists, who had preached the principles of revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, were now "billionaires" who have turned their backs on communism after economic reforms in the 1980s led to "socialism with Chinese characteristics."

      Roque said local communist leaders were still stuck to Marxist-Leninist-Maoist principles. Communist rebels were adhering to a guerrilla strategy attributed to Mao of surrounding the capital from the countryside.

      Now that China is a capitalist country, Roque said local rebels would no longer have a patron to turn to. "Who will you report to?" Roque said.

      There are still some Maoist true believers in China

      https://www.wikileaks.org/plus...

      4. (S) Turning to the Six Party Talks, Chun said it was "a
      very bad thing" that Wu Dawei had retained his position as
      chief of the PRC's delegation. It had been the ROK's
      expectation that Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai, who was
      hastily transferred from Tokyo back to Beijing, would be
      taking over from Wu. Chun said it appeared that the DPRK
      "must have lobbied extremely hard" for the now-retired Wu to
      stay on as China's 6PT chief. The VFM complained that Wu is
      the PRC's "most incompetent official," an arrogant,
      Marx-spouting former Red Guard who "knows nothing about North
      Korea, nothing about nonproliferation and is hard to
      communicate with because he doesn't speak English." Wu was
      also a hardline nationalist, loudly proclaiming -- to anyone
      willing to listen -- that the PRC's economic rise represented
      a "return to normalcy" with China as a great world power.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    4. Re:This is good since the two orphans... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Name some real communists. Because every communist uprising to date that I know of has each murdered countless people. So either nobody has ever done "real" communism (which should not give anyone reason to believe the next uprising will be any different) or REAL communism is evil veiled behind good intentions.

  2. Good. They need it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People are trying to get to Julian Assange.

  3. The secret to making it so effective by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is a special, highly-guarded gorilla detection algorithm

    1. Re:The secret to making it so effective by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I head Google was working on something for recognizing Gorillas.

  4. China - evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    China -> evil.
    EU -> evil.
    America -> good.
    Russia -> good.

    1. Re:China - evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You filthy Xenophobic pig!

      Only a brain-dead bigot would judge countries like that!

      Get with the program!

      It's
      China-> Always Good.

      EU-> Always Good.

      Ecuador->Always Good when using spy technology from China (pro-SCIENCE spy technology from ADVANCED China!) on its own people, Always Bad when harboring Julian Assange who was our Lord & Personal Savior until 2016 or so when we went Stalin on him and unpersoned him.

      America--> Always Evil because it's a racist shithole where all immigrants are immediately executed on site. In fact, America is so EVIL that it kidnaps literally billions of immigrants from their perfect socialist paradises where they live in euphoric happiness and never know want or sickness just to bring them into the U.S. to be executed by Trump's firing squads.

      Russia--> Just like America!

  5. ..and now the Chinese are watching, too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm sure the Chinese will be very pleased that Ecuador has volunteered to allow them to surveil their entire country via the inevitable backdoors in the 'security system' they sold them.

  6. South America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't Ecuador.. by *definition* in central america?

    1. Re: South America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is ignorance really bliss?

    2. Re:South America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ecuador is named after the equator which passes through it, Columbia and Brazil. All of them are, of course, SOUTH American countries. What do definitions have to do with it? Did you think the equator passes through central america?

    3. Re:South America by xvan · · Score: 1

      It's obvious that he is fostering european imperialist attitudes and putting an ethnic bias against the third world.

      Or, he is just one of those Mercator guys

  7. Governments be governmenting... by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If it wasn't the Chinese selling the Ecuadorans the gear, it would be the Israelis or the Europeans or us. It's not like this stuff is exactly uncommon these days.

    They probably got it cheaper buying direct from the original manufacturer.

    --
    That is all.
    1. Re:Governments be governmenting... by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

      Also, less backdoors.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    2. Re:Governments be governmenting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they paid $29.95 from Banggood.com for the whole thing.

    3. Re:Governments be governmenting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Original? Chinese stole it from someone else I bet.

  8. Not clear whether it will work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The circumference of the earth is 24.9K mi (google), and there are 24 hours in a day so at the equator it's spinning faster than 1000 mph.

    China is entirely north of the equator so they're spinning quite a bit slower there. That means the technology wasn't adequately tested for Ecuador's more demanding environment.

    1. Re:Not clear whether it will work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, those Equadorians must be really strong if they can hang on. It must be tough trying to speak to someone to the east given the sound barrier and all.

  9. Chinese seeing eye tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thatâ(TM)s a new slant on it.

  10. How is this news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The system went into operation more than a year ago. Was it kept secret until today?

  11. It would work in game by SMACX+guy · · Score: 1

    I would just point out that in SMACX, both Colonel Santiago and Chairman Yang generally have excellent police, resulting in very few problems with the drones.

    And (especially with Yang) if there ever were a problem, he could brutally nerve-staple the problem down quite easily.

    The upshot is that I think it would work. I would try it in the game.

    BUT I should mention that my most successful games had shitty police and also no drone problems. Diverting even 10% of your energy resources (maybe 20% in the late game when you're stinking fucking rich) to psych, is way better. That also knocks the drones right out, replacing them with talents. Do things right and you'll get golden ages that Yang would never dream of.

    Happy drones need not steal. If you bribe them, you don't have to surveille them.

  12. I was worried there for a second. by Ecuador · · Score: 1

    I read the title and was worried there for a second. I mean, sure, I see on some webpages ads of stuff that I just browsed or bought on Amazon, so I am used to some creepiness, but a Slashdot post about me buying a Foscam camera for my country house?

    --
    Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
  13. The chinese have an edge in SW too by williamyf · · Score: 1

    Aside from the fact that most if not all the Hardware for surveillance systems is manuactured/assembled in china, the chinese, by virtue of their MASSIVE surveillance programs at home, probably have an edge in the software front too.

    Do not get me wrong, Israel, USoA, India and most of Europe have great programmers, is just that, since surveillance is much less pervasive in those countries, programmers there do not have the 'GINORMOUS' testbed that their chinese colleagues have.

    Many things that normaly a programmer could oversee, become a poignant challenge at those scales.

    So, at LatAm, we welcome our new narrow eyed overlords.

    --
    *** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
    1. Re:The chinese have an edge in SW too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do not get me wrong, Israel, USoA, India and most of Europe have great programmers, is just that, since surveillance is much less pervasive in those countries, programmers there do not have the 'GINORMOUS' testbed that their chinese colleagues have.

      I would question whether our surveillance is actually less pervasive. Just because they're less shameless about it doesn't mean it's more pervasive over there.

    2. Re:The chinese have an edge in SW too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      China's surveillance is more effective because the Chinese citizens know what awaits them if they get caught doing something the government doesn't like. And unlike some countries with codified legal standards to protect the accused the only rights any Chinese citizen has are transactional and gets determined when they are detained.

      People may complain about how the US government intrudes on their lives. Some of these complaints are legitimate but the vast majority of US citizens are not afraid for their lives. It was not to long ago that China and Russia were governed sociopaths like Mao and Stalin. Both countries literally killed anyone who was stupid enough to voice any dissent. Hell when Stalin died he laid on his office floor for 6 hours because all of the high ranking officials were afraid to enter a place Stalin had deemed off limits to anyone without a personal invitation. The maid finally entered the office to do her job and she verified that Stalin was actually dead and the ones standing outside his office door could come in. Mao, Stalin, Hitler, and other similar leaders, past and present, maintained their power instilling as much fear as possible in those they were governing. And even though Stalin and Mai have been gone for quite some time the fear they left behind is still leveraged by the Kremlin and the Chinese "Party" to maintain power.

    3. Re:The chinese have an edge in SW too by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Israel, USoA, India and most of Europe have great programmers, is just that, since surveillance is much less pervasive in those countries,

      The UK is one of the most-surveilled places on the planet, and it's still part of Europe in spite of not being part of the EU any more. Surveillance is massive in Israel. You are off your nut.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  14. False headline. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What does surveillance have to do with fighting crime?

    In every country where totalitarian surveillance was installed (e.g. the UK or France), absolutely nothing improved it terms of crime rate, compared to the same thing without surveillance, and in the entire history of its usage in he UK, the total number of cases where it was useful, was about eight.

    Meanwhile, the amount of state terrorism and freedom robbery that it caused, goes into the millions of incidents.

    So if anything, IT IS CRIME.
    Like most (new) laws nowadays.

  15. DEBT TAB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just tack that onto the tab that they have accumulated for however BILLIONS OF DOLLARS they already owe to China

  16. Not convinced it is "needed" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    When I was in Ecuador, I saw a couple young girls one around 7yrs., the other around 8 or 9 yrs. carrying a *huge* wad of cash down the street unsupervised. The older girl could barely hold the stack of bills with both hands.

    Some areas, of the country, are like Disneyland (for crime), others are less great, but surveillance cameras won't do anything to fix those.

    Beautiful place with beautiful people.

    1. Re:Not convinced it is "needed" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When I was in Ecuador, I saw a couple young girls one around 7yrs., the other around 8 or 9 yrs. carrying a *huge* wad of cash down the street unsupervised. The older girl could barely hold the stack of bills with both hands.

      Some areas, of the country, are like Disneyland (for crime), others are less great, but surveillance cameras won't do anything to fix those.

      Beautiful place with beautiful people.

      It is needed. Just not for what they say it is needed for.

      Where did they get the wad of cash from? Did they pay taxes on it? Do they love dear leader?

  17. WikiLeaks by q4Fry · · Score: 1

    So how's that shiny new citizenship looking, Mr. Assange?

  18. So how is it going? by dkman · · Score: 1

    It says "went into operation November 2016", so it's been in place for a year.

    Has it supposedly served any purpose, done any good, etc?

    I don't personally have any problem with cameras in public places where privacy isn't to be expected anyhow. I might have a problem if footage of you being near some crime was used alone to convict you of it, but that's another story.

    --
    I refuse to sign