{"id":1256,"date":"2020-05-08T12:09:08","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T06:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nuventure.in\/?p=1256"},"modified":"2026-11-04T16:31:33","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T11:01:33","slug":"ethical-dilemmas-of-modern-day-tech-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nuventure.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/08\/ethical-dilemmas-of-modern-day-tech-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ethical Dilemmas of Modern-Day Tech (Part two)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Key takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Technology has always been a tool of both control and resistance, and AI has made state-scale surveillance cheaper and faster.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Internet shutdowns hit a record 313 in 2025 across 52 countries, according to Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A 2025 leak showed China&#8217;s Great Firewall technology is being packaged and sold to other governments.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Regulators are pushing back: the EU AI Act now bans several facial recognition practices, and Clearview AI has been fined by multiple European regulators.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I am not a big fan of dystopian novels (they almost always make me very angry). But I have always been impressed by how they draw parallels with real events. Another common feature of these books, particularly of the Orwellian variety, is the advanced technology the regime uses. From the telescreens in George Orwell&#8217;s <em>1984<\/em> to the genetically modified creatures in Suzanne Collins&#8217; <em>The Hunger Games<\/em>, technology is used to control the population and rarely to benefit it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When this post was first written in 2020, that felt like fiction with uncomfortable echoes. Today, with AI-powered surveillance widely available, it reads more like a briefing. Technology has always had a mutually beneficial but unhealthy relationship with authoritarian regimes. Long before electronic media, censorship laws and bans on sedition and blasphemy controlled the spread of information. Technology favors whoever holds it: it has spread revolutions and it has suppressed them, and as information moves faster, both happen faster. Tech companies, meanwhile, keep trying to balance ethics and profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this second part, we explore the uneasy relationship between tech and authoritarian regimes, and what has changed since 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-is-the-great-firewall-of-china\">What is the Great Firewall of China?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Great Firewall of China is the country&#8217;s system of internet censorship and surveillance. It blocks foreign websites and services, filters content, and monitors individual users, with platforms required to remove messages that go against government policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chinese tech companies play a major role. Tencent, Baidu and others grew rapidly in a market closed to most foreign competitors, partly by building powerful censorship tools. WeChat, China&#8217;s WhatsApp equivalent, can <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/s\/613962\/how-wechat-censors-private-conversations-automatically-in-real-time\/\">censor private messages automatically and in real time<\/a>, sometimes so quickly that the recipient never knows a message was sent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Foreign companies have felt the pull of China&#8217;s massive user base too. <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jeanbaptiste\/2019\/07\/19\/confirmed-google-terminated-project-dragonfly-its-censored-chinese-search-engine\/\">Google&#8217;s Project Dragonfly<\/a>, a censored search engine built to enter China, was cancelled after a backlash both inside and outside the company. Apple, for its part, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2017\/07\/29\/apple-removes-vpn-apps-from-the-app-store-in-china\/\">removed VPN apps from its China App Store<\/a> under pressure from authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"new-since-2020-the-great-firewall-is-being-exported\">New since 2020: the Great Firewall is being exported<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In September 2025, roughly 500 to 600 GB of internal files, including source code and work logs, leaked from Geedge Networks and a related research lab linked to the Great Firewall&#8217;s development. Researchers and journalists who analyzed the files reported that the company sells censorship and surveillance systems to other governments, with Myanmar, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Kazakhstan named in the analysis. In other words, censorship is no longer just a national policy. It is becoming a product that can be bought. (Sources: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/gssr.georgetown.edu\/the-forum\/topics\/technology\/exporting-the-great-firewallthe-ccps-exposed-efforts-to-spread-digital-authoritarianism\/\">Georgetown Journal of Asian Affairs<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/jamestown.org\/internet-censorship-tools-exported-along-belt-and-road\/\">Jamestown Foundation<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"why-do-governments-shut-down-the-internet\">Why do governments shut down the internet?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Governments shut down or throttle the internet to suppress protests, control information during elections, hide violence during conflict, or, in some cases, to limit exam cheating. Some blocks serve legitimate goals, such as taking down sites involved in illegal drug sales or human trafficking, but broad bans raise serious free speech concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The trend has only worsened. Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition documented at least <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.accessnow.org\/press-release\/rising-and-resisting-in-the-darkness-internet-shutdowns-in-2025\/\">313 shutdowns across 52 countries in 2025<\/a>, the highest number recorded since the coalition began tracking in 2016, up from 304 in 2024. India recorded 65 of them, its lowest count since 2017 but still the highest among democracies, according to reporting on the same report. The report also notes that shutdowns often coincide with human rights abuses, and that the International Criminal Court has recognized a link between shutdowns and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the context for the debates that began around the 2019 shutdowns in Kashmir, and Russia&#8217;s tests of disconnecting from the global internet: is internet access a fundamental right? Many civil society groups now argue it is, because a shutdown cuts people off from healthcare, banking, education and emergency information, not just social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"is-facial-recognition-legal-the-ethics-and-the-law\">Is facial recognition legal? The ethics and the law<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It depends on where you are and who is using it. In the European Union, the AI Act has banned some uses outright since February 2, 2025, including untargeted scraping of facial images from the internet or CCTV to build recognition databases, and real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces by law enforcement, with narrow exceptions such as searching for specific victims. Emotion recognition in workplaces and schools is also prohibited. Elsewhere, rules vary widely and are often a patchwork of local laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Facial recognition is a classic ethical dilemma because the benefits are real and the risks are severe. It can help find missing people and speed up airport check-ins. But it can also be used to track dissent and to identify anyone in a crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"the-social-credit-system-in-context\">The social credit system, in context<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2020 I described China&#8217;s social credit system as if citizens were all assigned a single score. A more accurate picture, based on later research, is a patchwork of government blacklists, local pilot programs and corporate scoring schemes rather than one unified national score. Even so, restrictions have been real: reported figures at the time said millions of air and high-speed rail tickets had been denied to people on blacklists, and facial recognition and AI are central to monitoring. The concern about this model of AI-enabled control remains valid, and it is why the EU AI Act now bans social scoring that leads to unjustified or disproportionate treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"clearview-ai-from-scandal-to-fines\">Clearview AI: from scandal to fines<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When this post was first written, law enforcement agencies in the US were using facial recognition from Clearview AI, which had built its database by scraping photos from social media and other websites without permission. Since then, regulators have responded. The Dutch Data Protection Authority fined Clearview <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl\/en\">\u20ac30.5 million in September 2024<\/a> for building an illegal database of billions of faces, and warned that organizations using the service could also face fines. Regulators in Italy, Greece and France each fined the company \u20ac20 million earlier. (The UK regulator&#8217;s fine was successfully challenged by the company.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The larger lesson: using people&#8217;s faces without their knowledge or consent carries legal risk, not only reputational risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"the-convenience-trap\">The convenience trap<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem with facial recognition is that, while it can severely affect privacy, the convenience it offers is hard to resist. US airports adopted it for faster check-in, but passengers were often not well informed and opting out was not easy. San Francisco became the first major US city to ban its use by city agencies, citing privacy concerns and inaccuracy. In India, facial recognition has been rolled out in places like railway stations to deter trafficking and find missing children. The goal is good. The open question is whether strong safeguards against abuse exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, something quieter has been watching all of us. Companies profile people by location, viewing habits, reading preferences and buying plans, all for profit. We have been handing that data to social media platforms and search engines for years. Data really is the oil of the 21st century, and in the age of AI, it is also the fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"faq\">FAQ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What is the Great Firewall of China?<\/strong> It is China&#8217;s system of internet censorship and surveillance, combining website blocking, content filtering and monitoring of individual users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Is facial recognition legal?<\/strong> It depends on the jurisdiction. The EU AI Act bans untargeted facial image scraping and most real-time police use in public spaces, while many other regions have no comprehensive rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How many internet shutdowns happened in 2025?<\/strong> Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition recorded at least 313 across 52 countries, the highest number on record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Can censorship technology be exported?<\/strong> Yes. A 2025 leak from Geedge Networks showed Great Firewall-style systems being sold to other governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-should-builders-of-technology-do\">What should builders of technology do?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Every one of these stories shares a pattern: the technology was not evil, but it was built or deployed without enough thought about misuse. If your business is building AI or IoT products that collect data, the same questions apply to you. Who owns the data? Can users opt out? What happens if the system is misused or misidentifies someone? Privacy by design, transparency, human oversight and regulatory readiness are no longer optional extras. They are product requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Nuventure, we help companies build intelligent products with those principles from day one. If you are looking for an experienced <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nuventure.com\/ai-consulting-custom-software-development\/\">AI development company<\/a> to design secure, compliant and responsible AI solutions, explore our <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nuventure.com\/ai-consulting-custom-software-development\/\">AI development services<\/a> and talk to our team. Our solutions are backed by ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certified practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Continue the series:<\/strong> In <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nuventure.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/11\/ethical-dilemmas-of-modern-day-tech\/\">Part 3<\/a>, we look at what happens when these same technologies collide with everyday business and society. You can also go back to <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nuventure.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/05\/ethical-dilemmas-of-modern-day-tech-part-one\/\">Part 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key takeaways I am not a big fan of dystopian novels (they almost always make me very angry). But I have always been impressed by how they draw parallels with real events. Another common feature of these books, particularly of the Orwellian variety, is the advanced technology the regime uses. From the telescreens in George [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":1257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,126,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-tech-news","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tech and Authoritarian Regimes: Ethics of AI Surveillance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From the Great Firewall to facial recognition and record internet shutdowns, see how tech fuels state control and what the EU AI Act changes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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