Thread by @NetAskari

EXCLUSIVE: How the track foreigners in China - We got rare access to demo system developed by the Ministry of Public Security in China for the prefecture of Zhangjiakou, to track and surveil foreigners visiting or being residents ( actually it applies to most nationals as well, but in this case it seems to be aimed at foreigners ). It is officially known as "Dynamic control platform for overseas personnel". 1/12

The test-system is fed with real world data it seems. We confirmed with some individuals that the data in the system were theirs, including some data of our own. The system provides a wide range of functionality, not all implemented. 2/12

In China, locals as well as foreigners have to be registered with local authorities. So your general whereabouts are known. If you are a traveler, usually this is done via your hotel. This is how it was for most of ht time in the past. Digital tools have streamlined this process, but also opened up a complete new possibility of real time tracking. Camera's with face detection can track your location in real time, going from one place in a town to another. 3/12

But the system also stores your travel data, like when riding a train. Your seat, carriage etc. is kept on record for later analysis. This information can be access in real time and, as we later see, will go into a general profile of you. 4/

The system differs between residents who stay in the region for work or study and temporary residents, like Tourists and other travelers. It stores most data of the residents, like passport data, visa data and cellphone numbers. Each resident will receive a detailed profile that can be inspected via a "quick view", including a "risk factor". 5/12

But the system provides much more details on the individual. It should be mentioned that this don't seem to be specific target persons ( we come to that later ) but just every foreigner in a region X. That includes medical records, movement data, job and residential information, consumption of petrol (?), daily routines and "social interactions". 6/12

This "social interactions" are interesting as the system has a relationship model functionality that puts people into relationship on how often they appear on visual surveillance footage together. In the case of this "demo", they seemed to have taken people with Pakistani nationality as their test case mostly. 7/12

It also has a pre-compiled database of "fugitives", "key personnel", ( euphemism for people under dedicated surveillance ) foreign students and foreign journalists. This seem to be used to run interference against to warn local administration and security organs that those "special" visitors have made it to the town/prefecture/sub-district. All the data of the journalists in this database used were legit, but focused only on the foreign journalists based in Beijing. 8/12

A statistical functionality has been also integrated ( albeit a little bit basic ). In the spreadsheets apart from classical statistical numbers on general visitor numbers, there is a particular focus on citizens from "5 eyes countries". That tracks with the general suspicion in the Chinese security bodies, that nationally equals to "general suspicion". 9/

But do the information just come from official surveillance tech that the police operates ? No. It also gets its data input from cameras from a ski lift access system. As Zhangjiakou is a popular winter sport location, why not incorporate this data stream as well !? This hints that not just "official surveillance infrastructure" is contributing to the overall system, but that sensors from other, more private settings are incorporated too. A journalist who was detected while skiing, was flagged immediately. 10/12

A "bird's eye view" of the information is also available showing interconnection of different nationalities, how "travelers" are related to each other under "companion statistics". Plus general stats on violations, police cases etc. It should be mentioned again, this is a test demo and how much of it has been implemented in a functional way or have made it into real life scenarios, we don't know. 11/12

If you want to get a proper deep dive come over here to read up on the PART 1 on the "Dynamic Control Platform for obsess personnel" ( PART 2 will be out soon too with more technical details of our investigation ). Judging by what we could find in the dashboard, the system was tested at around 2023 but some of the underlying data is from 2021. Although some minor changes were made on the UI this year, it seems by pretty much abandoned and has now been taken offline. - netaskari.substack.com/p/sharp-eyes-h… 12/12

And @sophia_yan wrote about it too as someone who was more or less directly "involved : telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…