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Ecuador's intelligence agency has access to a vast Chinese-made surveillance system that could The New York Times has discovered. During an interview at the National Intelligence Secretariat, or Senain, the paper says it is inadvertently uncovered. The discovery happened after a report of what he thought was a dimmer switch only to reveal a hidden window that had been previously frosted over.
The discovery is likely to increase the use of Chinese-made surveillance state equipment around the world. The ECU-911 system used in Ecuador was manufactured jointly by China's state-backed C.E.I.E.C and Huawei, and consists of as many as 4,200 cameras, monitored by 16 centers and around 3,000 employees. The system lets the government track phones, and may be upgraded with facial-recognition capabilities, according to The New York Times.
Outside of Ecuador, similar systems to Venzuela, Bolivia, and Angola, and the NYT reports that as many as 18 countries worldwide are currently using Chinese-made monitoring systems. China is not only one of the first countries to produce this technology, but it is concerned that it has made these systems vastly cheaper for other countries to install, use, and ultimately, abuse.
The full report and video documentary is well worth your time. As The NYT notes, "these cameras are easier to abuse than to use, it just depends what your goals are."
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