
Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App - dominiek
https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/05/01/chinas-algorithms-repression/reverse-engineering-xinjiang-police-mass-surveillance
======
redwards510
It would be helpful to get some true, short stories about the path from
harmless activity -> data collection -> re-education camp to show people in
the rest of the world why their techie friends are always harping on the
dangers of online tracking and the erosion of privacy. This is the depressing
doomsday scenario we're all trying to avoid. It's already real and it's
happening in a massive country with an eye towards expansion.

~~~
rmah
What if there aren't any such stories?

~~~
andrei_says_
From the article:

In Xinjiang, authorities have created a system that considers individuals
suspicious based on broad and dubious criteria, and then generates lists of
people to be evaluated by officials for detention. Official documents state
that individuals “who ought to be taken, should be taken,” suggesting the goal
is to maximize the number of people they find “untrustworthy” in detention.
Such people are then subjected to police interrogation without basic
procedural protections. They have no right to legal counsel, and some are
subjected to torture and mistreatment, for which they have no effective
redress, as we have documented in our September 2018 report. The result is
Chinese authorities, bolstered by technology, arbitrarily and indefinitely
detaining Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang en masse for actions and behavior that
are not crimes under Chinese law.

------
CharlesColeman
> The IJOP center also sends officials to investigate cases when an
> individual’s phone, ID card, or vehicle has gone “off-grid.” Screen 15
> displays the prompt sent to officials requesting them to investigate a phone
> number that the system has lost track of. The officer is prompted to probe,
> using a drop-down menu, why the phone went off-grid. The officer is then
> asked to note whether the person questioned seems suspicious and whether the
> case needs further investigation.

> ...

> The IJOP system also alerts officials when people are using phones that do
> not belong to them, giving the officials information about the case and the
> personal particulars of the person who is registered to the phone account,
> such as their ID number (see screen 19). It is unclear how the system
> “knows” that a person is using a phone that does not belong to them.[80]
> Officials are again required to log the reasons for the mismatch and decide
> if the person is suspicious.[81]

This technique especially scary for people concerned about privacy, because it
means passive attempts to avoid surveillance will invite more direct
invasions.

~~~
rasz
.2 they are scanning for new IMSI/IMEI pairs and comparing with known
database.

~~~
gdhbcc
Or perhaps transmitting photographs on screen unlock that are used for image
recognition

------
motohagiography
Great article for getting a sense of what is of interest to a state. China has
its own issues, but as a sample of what a given state considers interesting,
it's a map for detecting how other countries likely collect the same
information with some pretense of discretion. I'm sure we're all "shocked,
shocked!" to have just found this out.

------
HillaryBriss
article says the level of surveillance carried out with this app in Xinjiang
exceeds what is allowed by the law _in China_

 _Many—perhaps all—of the mass surveillance practices described in this report
appear to be contrary to Chinese law._

------
olivermarks
Really important article IMO.

------
CharlesColeman
It's too bad this is probably going to be flagged to death (or at least off
the front page).

Of all the articles about Xinjiang and Chinese human rights issues, this is
one of rare ones that's right up HN's alley, because of its focus on the
_details of the technology_ of mass surveillance.

~~~
kekebo
Why would it be flagged?

~~~
jsloss
Brigading from folks with some reason or another to be very pro china.

------
zachguo
So, China basically treats Uyghurs citizens as foreigners. The app is a
digitalized DS-160 form, and checkpoints are customs.

