The ecommerce giant reportedly purchased 1,500 cameras from China’s Zhejiang Dahua earlier this month to curb the spread of COVID-19 through its warehouses. Dahua is one of the largest makers of surveillance camera tech in the world, and its products are often relabelled and sold under other popular brand names such as Honeywell. This is an obvious security concern, as US authorities have continuously warned that tech firms like Dahua are capable of inserting backdoors that could allow Chinese intelligence to access sensitive data.
Government blacklists don’t affect the private sector
The United Nations believes China has imprisoned more than one million Uighurs and other minorities in internment camps, which US authorities say are surveilled by an advanced system built, in part, with Dahua equipment. Trump’s White House blacklisted Dahua last year alongside 28 Chinese organizations it implicated in those human rights abuses. Dahua denies any wrongdoing, as does Beijing, the latter having already requested the US remove the companies from its blacklist. At least one department considers transactions of any nature with blacklisted entities a ‘red flag.’ In fact, hospitals, government offices, factories, train stations, and airports have installed Dahua cameras during the coronavirus pandemic, according to Reuters, which noted that IBM and Chrysler had also submitted orders to the company.
