Cultural Crackdown
China is cracking down on Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in a move that some are calling a “deliberate and calculated campaign of cultural genocide.” The experiment, an invasion of privacy driven by the concept of using a small scrap of DNA to figure out how someone will look, requires people who want to buy a smartphone or a cellular plan to scan their face.
China is widely known for its controversial practices with respect to minorities in the Xinjiang region, as well as its strong push for wide adoption of facial recognition systems. The country’s latest privacy nightmare is the introduction of new rules that will require anyone who wants to buy a smartphone or a cellular plan to scan their face, supposedly to counter any potential fraud attempts.
China routinely tests new surveillance systems in the Muslim-dominated Xinjiang region of the country. It recently started an experiment to determine how well an emotion recognition system works, but now it is going a step further. According to the New York Times, researchers have begun to collect blood from Uighur Muslims in the city of Tumxuk, where over one million of them are in detection camps. The researchers would like to use the DNA to create a rough model of a person’s face.
DNA phenotyping analyzes the groups of genes associated with ancestry, complexion, eye color, shapes of facial features and gender to sketch a realistic face. The science for this procedure was developed in the West, where law enforcement officials want to use it to narrow down the pool of suspects in hard cases. Researchers have used it generate models of how ancient humans looked.
Even after perfecting the technique for many years, the scientists are not sure it is accurate enough to identify a certain individual. The current knowledge base about genes may not be enough to predict how a person might look, and one would have to take other variables such as age and weight into consideration. The consensus is that the world is a long way from being able to use DNA phenotyping as a reliable tool in forensic science.
China does not want to wait, and the new development raises concerns about consent and human rights. Mark Munsterhjelm from the University of Windsor, Ontario, said that the Chinese government is crafting “essentially technologies used for hunting people,” as reported by the New York Times.
Most likely, the people involved in the research have not provided written consent. out internment camps. There are only a few reports from Uighurs and human rights groups that show that the authorities have collected blood samples, images of irises and other personal identification markers.
Eventually, the bigger concern is the idea that China could use the results of this research to build mass surveillance systems. According to leaked documents, Chinese tech companies are taking the lead in global surveillance standards, especially in the area of facial recognition. Vision may become easier to export to other regions, thanks to the efforts of the Chinese companies.
