
Smart CCTV Networks Driving AI-Powered Apartheid in South Africa - davidfoster
https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/pa7nek/smart-cctv-networks-are-driving-an-ai-powered-apartheid-in-south-africa
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easytiger
That was a lot of reading to fail to come anywhere near supporting the premise
of the article. I suspect the author started writing before they knew how to
corale the facts as they exist to support the headline supposition which I
suspect predate the evidence.

For a start SA is a country where you can't depend on the civil police force.
They might as well not exist.

Secondly, the fact of the matter is, the crime types being discussed are
generally commented 99%+ of the time by people from a particular racial
background. That's neither surprising, contentious or relevant.

More divisive language to generate negative sentiment against the white
minority in SA.

If you aren't party to the cancerousb corrupt politics of SA it makes Trump
look moderate and sane

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vumathrowaway
Wow, I can't describe how weird it is to see this story on HN. I live in a
suburb that has these cameras and for so long I've been the only person I know
that's remotely concerned about the implications of having face detection
capable cameras, at every corner.

In fact, I'm writing this comment using the aerial fibre lines mentioned in
the article, and after reading this I am genuinely unsure if I should cancel
my line. I really do not want to be funding private surveillance of my entire
city.

Having said that, I have some thoughts on the article, and I would like to put
them in writing, partly to clarify them for myself.

1\. Holy shit

I want to start off by saying __holy shit __, because it is the first reaction
I had to this story. Living right next to these things, I was only aware of a
small amount of what is being reported in this article. I don 't know if this
is just because I don't read much local news or because the local reporting on
this is not that great, either way, this is the first time I'm hearing about a
lot of the details of the companies and processes involved.

I think what is most shocking to me is that (1) the fibre lines were installed
primarily for the purposes of surveillance. (2) A single private company has
access to footage across the entire city. (3) The cameras are already being
used for evil.

(1) is crazy not because the purpose of why something was installed matters
much now, but mostly because it’s crazy to me that I got excited about getting
fibre and my entire neighbourhood being covered in fibre, when I actually
getting pumped about my entire neighbourhood being covered with modern
surveillance cameras. I signed up for fibre, at my house, the day it was
available, and I feel kind of stunned that I actually played a role in this
thing coming into existence.

(2) is one of the most disturbing new things I learned from this article.
Vumacam is creating networks of networks which means that not only will all of
the new cameras and footage belong to one company, but old networks will be
integrated too. Meaning that, one company will essentially have access to the
entire city. This map of their coverage and planned coverage shows how insane
this is [https://video-
images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1574373771175-V...](https://video-
images.vice.com/_uncategorized/1574373771175-Vumacam-coverage-
cropped-1.jpeg?resize=1050)

If they really do reach their goal of covering that much area with their
cameras, they will have a version of the sonar machine from the Dark Knight,
or the airplane from the "Eye in the Sky" episode of radiolab
[https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/sky](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/sky)

It would be absurd to give this power to a government, yet a lone a private
company. I wouldn't trust the current SA government or vumacam, with these
cameras, even right now, and who knows what both of these entities might
become or change into. However, at least if the cameras were in the hands of a
government, they couldn't be acquired easily. As it stands, someone who is
just very wealthy, could probably acquire vumacam and have access to footage
of the entire city. What if it were, instead, Naspers
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naspers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naspers)
that buys vumacam? Suddenly there would be a company with questionable ties to
China, owning footage of the entire city. Probably wouldn't be great for
anyone participating in a pro Hong Kong march, not that there have been any in
SA, but still.

(3) The fact that there these cameras are __already __being used for evil hit
me hard. Everyone should read the log and actions, that are produced by these
cameras:[https://web.archive.org/web/20150317191310/http://fibrehoods...](https://web.archive.org/web/20150317191310/http://fibrehoods.co.za/images/iSentry_Shift_Report_Oct%2014%202014.pdf)

What is occurring in this log is insane. Normal people being stopped,
monitored and intimidated for doing nothing, would be awful in any country but
it is particularly bad in SA, where, like the article mentions, this occurred
with a paper system against black people, under Apartheid.

This is very surprising to me, because I thought this is something that would
probably happen in the future, and not something that would be happening right
now.

2\. Huawei

I just want to take this time to briefly mention that state owned china tech
is all over this network. When the cables were being installed, people with
Huawei reflector vests were all over my neighbourhood. If you look at the
camera's, they are all made by Hikvision. My fibre modem is also made by
Huawei. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think it’s very possible the CCP could
gain access to every camera on this network.

3\. Race

The article has rightly focused on how this camera network particularly
affects black people. This is absolutely true, and all the points it makes on
this are, I think, correct. However, part of me wishes that the article
would've eventually turned to speak about the effects of the network on
everyone, black and white. I don't disagree that in the short term and maybe
even quite far into the future, it will be black people that are affected the
worst by this system. But I think the article has left out that the
predominantly white neighbourhoods where the cameras are being installed, will
inevitably be used to surveil on those who wanted them installed in the first
place, to "reduce crime". Whatever crime might be defined as in the future.

3\. Crime

Crime is covered in the article, but not well. And I think their coverage of
it felt a little out of touch, given that it is a major reason for people
wanting these cameras in the first place. Funnily enough, the author has a
quote in the article, which I think does perfectly describe what crime feels
like in SA, but without fully expanding on the contents of the quote.

> “I think the closer the crime is to your person, the harder it hits people.”

This is 100% true. It is hard for me to accurately describe my experience with
crime in SA, but I will try, and expand on this quote anyway.

I, luckily, have not been that badly affected by crime. But even with just the
few minor encounters I have had with it, I still feel scared, everywhere, all
the time.

One story I can share is when I was almost robbed. This is a minor incident,
compared to other stuff in SA, but it affected me badly. I was watching TV and
heard a loud banging near my gate. Thought it was just construction. Nbd. But
It carries on for a minute, so I decide to get up and check what's going on. I
see someone with a hammer hitting my gate over and over again, trying to break
in. I didn't know how far they had gotten. I didn't know how strong my gate
was, all I knew was that their intent was to get into my house and in the best
case, steal some stuff.

When I saw the guy trying to break in, I was initially very confused. It
probably took me 10-15 seconds before I realised what was going on. Once I
understood what was going on, I then had to call my security company and get
everyone into a safe place. It’s hard to explain, but making the call was
mentally fatiguing. I don't know why, but everything from doing the unlock
pattern on my phone, to selecting the right contact, took effort. Like I had
never done it before. At the same time, I was trying to lock all the doors,
and also head deeper into the house. It was a goddamn nightmare. When me, and
everyone else that was with me, finally got as many doors between us and the
outside as we could, we just had to sit there and hope really hard that none
of us would be hurt. It took a couple of minutes but eventually our security
company arrived and gave us the all clear. The guy had run away for some
reason.

So, when the author says: "To guard against crime, the mostly white, wealthy
households of the suburbs have traditionally been fortified with high concrete
walls, electric wire, guard dogs, surveillance cameras, and alarm systems." I
feel like their tone is particularly unhelpful because they don't discuss any
of the 'why', why people have high walls, electric fences and cameras. Instead
we just get, what feels like to me, a snarky comment that rich white people
have high walls and want cameras.

So yeah, I have high walls and an alarm because every day I am worried about
being murdered in my house. And I have to say, that ultimately the thing the
article neglects, is that its ridiculously scary to live in SA, and
particularly Johannesburg. You are on edge all the time. Wherever you go you
are scared. At least that's true for me, and I suspect its true for the people
that are pro these cameras.

Living here, it’s very easy for me to see the other side of this, if less
people die, and I feel personally safer because some company I have never
heard of installs cameras everywhere, how could you say no, especially if you
have had personal experiences with crime?

Personally, I think blanketing the city with privately owned cameras does not
justify the ends of crime possibly going down. What it could lead to, is much
worse than the crime we have now. But crime in SA is a real problem, and if
people in much safer countries are struggling to fight off face detection
everywhere, all the more reason we should understand the reasons people want
these cameras. It’s probably not because they are racist or rich, but just
because they are scared.

