Allowing Chinese surveillance companies to operate in the UK is akin to installing “digital asbestos” that puts civil liberties at risk, warned the government’s Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, Fraser Sampson, who is reviewing the country’s human rights and security issues.
Sampson said on Tuesday that allowing China’s controversial CCTV makers and operators Hikvision and Dahua to become the dominant companies in the UK surveillance sector means “almost every aspect of our lives is now under surveillance using advanced systems designed by, and purchased from, companies under the control of other governments.”
“We have a public surveillance infrastructure built on ‘digital asbestos’ requiring both considerable caution when handling the products installed by a previous generation and, as a priority, a moratorium on any further installation until we fully understand the risks we have created,” Sampson said….