Eavesdropping on a neighbours conversation, watching strangers work out at a gym or just observe them relaxing in their homes — in China everything is just a click away.
Thousands of surveillance cameras across China are connected to websites. Anyone can watch these footage with little consideration for the privacy of those who are caught on camera, according to media reports.
These platforms are increasingly becoming a form of entertainment. Viewers even leave comments about the unsuspecting public, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The CCTV cameras capture everything from mundane rural life or scenic spots, to spaghetti junctions, construction sites, radio studios, craftspeople at work and puppies in pet shops. While many of there are public spaces, the cameras have also invaded private areas like gym classes, swimming pools, shops, restaurants and their kitchens, children doing ballet classes and even inside homes of the people.
In an article for the Wall Street Journal, writer Josh Chin explained that “China’s 751 million internet users can binge on real-time video streams of yoga studios, swimming lessons, alpaca ranches and thousands of other scenes captured by surveillance cameras.”
“Much of what’s available would be unthinkable in the West, according to legal experts... In China, however, surveillance is both pervasive and widely accepted,” Mr Chin wrote.
He claimed that even schools and classrooms have not been spared. “No surveillance warning notice was visible at the Shang Ya Dance School in northern Beijing last week as a white Qihoo camera live-streamed a dozen young girls in pastel leotards twirling around a cramped studio,” Mr Chin said.
