China: Microsoft should stop cooperating with Chinese AI developers

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demands the software company Microsoft to suspend its cooperation with the Chinese company that developed the AI-based face recognition software that is used to keep the Uyghurs and the Kazakhs in the country under surveillance. "According to Microsoft's code of conduct, the company is committed to human rights and data protection – and should therefore not cooperate with companies that help to systematically disenfranchise China's Muslims," stated Ulrich Delius, the STP's director, in Göttingen on Tuesday. A recently discovered gigantic data leak had brought forth evidence that SenseNet (headquartered in Shenzhen, China) is systematically monitoring the movements of more than 2.5 million Uyghurs and Kazakhs in the Xinjiang region. On its website, SenseNet boasts to be a business partner of Microsoft.

Further, the STP demanded binding ethical standards for the use of facial recognition software and artificial intelligence. According to Delius, the data scandal in China shows how important it is to protect the people from mass surveillance in public places. Further, companies that fail to comply with such standards should be internationally shunned and excluded from public tendering.

Last week, a Dutch IT expert of the GDI Foundation informed SenseNet that the data captured by their cameras in Xinjiang had been freely accessible since July 2018 – and that it could be deleted or changed at any time. The stored information also included ID numbers, date of birth, employer, and address of the persons. "In terms of data security, this is a total disaster – but SenseNet has not even responded to the news about the data leak. This shows just how bad the data protection situation in China is, even if German politicians tend to ignore this," Delius criticized.

AI-based camera surveillance is also used in the re-education camps in Xinjiang, where approximately 1.1 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz people are detained against their will. "China may be the world leader in the use of artificial intelligence, but the systematic abuse of facial recognition software to oppress millions of people sheds a bad light on technological progress," Delius emphasized. In the face of massive abuse, politics must finally take credible measures instead of merely treating AI as a technical challenge for the economy.

Header image: Gen Kanai via Flickr.