Huawei—Filed patent application for Uyghur ethnicity detection in pedestrian identification system
In July 2018, Huawei and Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly filed patent application for 'identification of pedestrian attributes' that specifically referenced Uyghurs as one 'race' that 'can be' detected: 'The attributes of the target object can be gender (male, female), age (such as teenagers, middle-aged, old), race (Han, Uyghur)'. Following BBC and IPVM investigation in January 2021, Huawei said they would 'amend' the patent, stating ethnicity identification 'should never have become part of the application.'
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authoritarian Compliance | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| Surveillance Technology | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -1.180 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
Patent application explicitly lists Uyghur as detectable 'race' attribute
July 2018 patent co-authored with Chinese Academy of Sciences for pedestrian identification stated: 'The attributes of the target object can be gender (male, female), age (such as teenagers, middle-aged, old), race (Han, Uyghur)'. Following BBC/IPVM investigation, Huawei said they would 'amend' patent.