Xiaomi smart cams see other people’s homes ; Google disconnects from Xiaomi products

Update (2020.1.3 16:20) : Xiaomi official statement says the problem was caused by a video system update released at the end of December. Xiaomi said they had already addressed the issue, and stopped the related service temporarily until the root cause of the problem could be resolved.

Home monitors can let users see the situations at home while away, and can keep a record when there are burglars or other problems at home. However, Xiaomi’s Mi Home apps made a big blunder recently. From their home smart monitors connected to Google Home system, users could see video images of other people’s homes. Google terminated the connections with Mi Home apps immediately after they received the reports.

Member “u/Dio-V” on Reddit uploaded the video, and said that, after he connected the camera with Google Home system, saw not only what was happening at home, but also random images of unknown people’s homes, including their living rooms, baby cribs, etc. Google community officer responded to the post immediately, and contacted him at once for follow-up.

Google said they had temporarily terminated the connections with Mi Home apps for now, and were seeking a resolution with Mi Home. Mi Home video users can no longer see any video images on Google Home, but only the “currently unavailable” wording.

A Reddit user joked that the affected person “unintentionally opened the secret mode of the Chinese government.” Quite a few users who also installed the monitors are worried. But some also point out it might be a programming error that grabbed images from the caches. However, it all needs to wait for Google or Xiaomi to come up with an explanation eventually, before users’ worries on smart home monitors can be released.

Xiaomi official response: System update caused problems with the caches

Xiami made an official response to this incident, saying that Xiaomi had always put the privacy and information security of the users first. They found out there was an extremely small chance of streaming image problem when “Mi Home Wireless IP Camera Basic” products were connected on Google Home. As for the inconvenience caused to the users, Xiaomi has expressed deep regrets. Xiaomi said they took actions to address the problem after finding out about it, and had solved it. They found in the investigations that, starting from testing on 26 December, 2019, they caused problems with the caches. Xiaomi said this problem happened only when “Mi Home Wireless IP Camera Basic“ and Google Home are used together and when network connections are not good. After investigations Xiaomi found out 1,044 users had similar problems. After they communicated with Google, they had stopped such service temporarily until the root cause could be resolved, and ensured that the incident would not happen again.

Below are the original script of the official announcement:

[Statement: Xiaomi has always prioritized our users’ privacy and information security. We are aware there was an issue of receiving stills while connecting Mi Home Security Camera Basic 1080p on Google Home hub. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused to our users.

Our team has since acted immediately to solve the issue and it is now fixed. Upon investigation, we have found out the issue was caused by a cache update on December 26, 2019, which was designed to improve camera streaming quality. This has only happened in extremely rare conditions. In this case, it happened during the integration between Mi Home Security Camera Basic 1080p and the Google Home Hub with a display screen under poor network conditions.

We have also found 1044 users were with such integrations and only a few with extremely poor network conditions might be affected. This issue will not happen if the camera is linked to the Xiaomi’s Mi Home app.]

#Surveillance #Privacy #China #Xiaomi
https://unwire.hk/2020/01/03/xiaomicamera/tech-secure/

#English #Chinazi #Surveillance

#English #Chinazi #Surveillance

#Newspaper

(13-Jan) Using Huawei technology in UK 5G networks would put transatlantic intelligence sharing at risk, senior US officials have warned British ministers. Despite the head of MI5 indicated that he saw “no reason to think” that using Huawei technology would threaten intelligence sharing with the US, his view was flatly contradicted by a senior member of the US lobby delegation to UK, who also warned that the Congress had made it clear they would evaluate the transAtlantic intelligence sharing if the green light is given to Huaiwei 5G in UK.

Source: The Guardian
https://bit.ly/30QsBNh

Further reading:
Huawei will be allowed to build parts of Britain’s 5G network
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/01/28/huawei-will-allowed-build-parts-britains-5g-network/

#Surveillance #WhiteTerror #Huawei #ChinaThreat #5G

Stalking, Surveillance, Blocking, Capturing - Experience of Chinese Human Rights Activists (and The New Norm in Hong Kong)

"I haven't had any visitors at my house for years, because they're downstairs, not allowing any diplomat, media worker, journalist, or so-called 'unstable individuals', to come to my house." Hu Jia said in a video interview with Stand News from her home in Beijing, while wearing a black blouse with the words "I want true universal suffrage".

Read our full translated article:
https://telegra.ph/Stalking-Surveillance-Blocking-Capturing---Experience-of-Chinese-Human-Rights-Activists-and-The-New-Norm-in-Hong-Kong-01-11

Source：Stand News #Oct21

#Stalking #Surveillance #Blocking #Capturing #ChineseHumanRights 

China surveillance expands to Twitter and Facebook – Chinese students’ family arrested after students posted news against China in overseas

//The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls all internet traffic and bans access to foreign websites. Chinese netizens can only access banned sites via Virtual Private Network (VPN) illegally.

//Chinese people post on overseas platforms without using their true names but they were still monitored and detected by CCP watchdogs.

//The CCP police (Public Security Bureau) also records the frequency of posts and how many had read the posts for every target they identified and investigated.

//While posing on social media deterrence the China people, CCP had already expanded the monitoring around the world. A China student surnamed LOU, who studied in the United States in 2018 and satirized CCP General Secretary XI Jinping on Twitter, was arrested and convicted for “picking and provoking trouble” with 6 months imprisonment when he returned to China in 2019. This incident was deeply concerned by certain American Senators.

//It is extremely scary and controversial – those students post on Twitter without using their real name, how can CCP able to trace them and get to their family?


Full Translation Here: Hong Kong Echo

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan)

#China #Surveillance #PoliceState #MonitorInternet

Smile for the camera: the dark side of China's emotion-recognition tech

Ordinary people in China aren’t happy with emotion-recognition camera, but they have no choice. They have to live with it if the police say there have to be cameras in a community.

Emotion-recognition technologies in which facial expressions of anger, sadness, happiness and boredom, as well as other biometric data are tracked are supposedly able to infer a person’s feelings based on traits such as facial muscle movements, vocal tone, body movements and other biometric signals.

Similar to facial recognition, it involves the mass collection of sensitive personal data to track, monitor and profile people and uses machine learning to analyse expressions and other clues.

Critics say the technology is based on a pseudo-science of stereotypes, and an increasing number of researchers, lawyers and rights activists believe it has serious implications for human rights, privacy and freedom of expression. 

Source: The Guardian #Mar03

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/mar/03/china-positive-energy-emotion-surveillance-recognition-tech?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

#China #EmotionRecognitionTec #Surveillance #AbuseHumanRight

#Regime
Hong Kong Authority Introduces #SmartPrison with 24-hour #HD Surveillance, Detainee: I Live As an Animal

"Here, it is even worse than the CIC [Castle Peak Bay Immigration Centre],"
almost every detainee in Tai Tam Gap Correctional Institution in Hong Kong said the same thing.

In 2020, around 30 detainees in #CIC went on a hunger strike, protesting against their unlimited detention time, the facility's poor hygiene, and the inappropriate behavior of the correctional department staff.

The CIC Concern Group, a non-profit human rights group, was thereafter created by a group of social workers, pro-demoncracy activists and volunteers in Hong Kong; however, even them could not believe that there exists a detention centre in Hong Kong that is worse than the CIC.

In June 2021, the Hong Kong authority transferred some of the protesting detainees in the CIC to the Tai Tam Gap Correctional Institution.

The newly established facility is the first "Smart Prison" in Hong Kong. This institution is full of HD surveillance cameras. All the detainees are required to wear an electronic bracelet for the authority to monitor their heartbeats and locations.

Those who are detained in the centre are thereoretically not prisoners, as they have only violated the immigration regulation; however, they are being detained in a prison.

To make it worse, the Correctional Service Department (#CSD) has already dispatched twice the Regional Response Team, Panther, within 4 months, to "combat illegal activities". It was found that some detainees have been placed in individual detention for 2 months.

Meanwhile, it was discovered that some correctional department staff have been watching the surveillance canera footage like a voyeur , followed by acts like masturbation and ridiculing the detainees.

A detainee said, "I live as an animal."

The CIC concerned group criticised that the authority has abused the detainees by means of violence, individual detention and privacy infringement.

The group's worst fear is that using the most disadvantaged detainees as guinea pigs is only the first step of the government and that the same operation systen would be appled to all prisons in Hong Kong next.

"The government labelled the CIC detainees as very dangerous to justify the need for an upgrade in military equipment. They can do thr sane thing in any prisons in Hong Kong."

Source: InMediaHK #Sep25
https://bit.ly/3o5PSbS

#Prison #Xinjiang #Surveillance #Dystopia #Panthers #Chinazi #TaiTamGapCorrectionalInstitution

#Surveillance
Portable charger in China Turned into Eavesdropping Device and GPS Locator

In China, a portable charger can become an eavesdropping device and a GPS locator. Acoording to Chinese media, with the installation of SIM card, such portable charger can eavesdrop a long distance away and locate the user accurately.

These devices come in various colours and models, but most have the functionality of "remote monitoring recording" and "precise positioning".

They cost from RMB300 to RMB600 and can be bought on some online platforms.

In China, a journalist from #Banyuetan (#半月談) successfully modifies a portable charger from a store with RMB300. He downloads a "#GPS365" app onto his phone. After logging in with the username and password given by the seller, the screen shows the device location, tracking record, contact list, messages etc.

The journalist puts "location" in trial and finds out that the activity tracking of the user can be seen clearly with the portable charger. Even places like underground and car parks can still be accurately shown on the system.

The staff told the journalist that the charger could record sound from the surroundings and automatically send the recording to the phone once the environment noise exceeds 50dB with "Sound Control Convo (#聲控語聊到)" installed in the app. The portable charger can also pick up phone calls automatically.

Source: RFA #Jul27
https://www.facebook.com/454004001340790/posts

#GPS #SoundControl #Tracking #Taobao #Privacy #Security #PrecisePositioning #MadeinChina