2.6 million cameras in Chongqing!? that number is mind-boggling. In fact it's borderline unbelievable. How could any one organisation possibly use, process or even receive that much data?<p>I have questions about exactly where this data comes from. Does it include every single camera in the city, eg. security in shops or apartment buildings? Surely they're not linked into the government.<p>Or are they all supposed to be some kind of "smart" cameras that detect and isolate faces, vehicles etc and then send only some kind of abstracted data back to the mothership? That sounds like the only manageable methodology. It also sounds unbelievably expensive.<p>This article raises more questions than answers.
Atlanta is the most surveilled city in the US. The local news had this on TV last week. They walked around and asked a bunch of random people what they thought. Every single person said they were fine with surveillance if it made things safer.
There is a very big difference between standard CCTV cameras and automated high resolution facial recognition ones. Standard CCTV is used to collect evidence when a crime has been committed. Automated facial recognition cameras are used for real time tracking. China makes extensive use of the facial recognition ones and London only has those near Kings Cross station (which has recently caused a public outcry). Source: <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2019/08/14/kings-cross-facial-recognition-news/" rel="nofollow">https://www.dezeen.com/2019/08/14/kings-cross-facial-recogni...</a>
<i>A higher number of cameras just barely correlates with a higher safety index and lower crime index.</i><p>What about conviction rates? For example, a lot of shootings in Chicago go unsolved. Maybe for lack of a witness?
Slightly tangential, but it’s interesting that Hong Kong’s safety index is higher than one of Singapore, considering the apparently-stricter overall regulations in the latter city. They don’t seem to disclose the sources for safety & crime indices, though I assume they used a trustworthy source.<p>EDIT: They do credit the source to numbeo.com, which doesn’t rely on government stats (<a href="https://www.numbeo.com/crime/" rel="nofollow">https://www.numbeo.com/crime/</a>).
I'm surprised to see Berlin on this list, which is generally a city that is very surveillance-averse. I live in Berlin and am not even aware of the presence of surveillance cameras. Any more information on this statistic?
Why is Taipei not on this list?<p>There are 13,000 cameras [1] for 2.7 million people [2].<p>1. <a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/04/08/2003500223" rel="nofollow">http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/04/08/2...</a><p>2. <a href="http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/taipei-population/" rel="nofollow">http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/taipei-populat...</a>
I wonder how they come up with these stats.<p>I have a security camera on my house. I don't know how that would be captured in the statistics at all.
I’ve never seen this point made but: one response to the surveillance state is to push for more remote work. It’s infinitely easier to set up surveillance cameras in urban areas than in even a slightly rural area.