As per the recent data collected for CCTV (Closed-circuit TV) surveillances, China, USA, and Germany have been announced to be the top three nations that have the maximum number of CCTV cameras installed in every nooks and corner. In fact, China has four times more CCTV cameras installed in its territory than the US. It has built the world’s biggest camera surveillance system with over 170 million CCTV cameras installed that use AI (artificial intelligence) and facial recognition techniques to keep the citizens under the radar all the time.
CCTVs serve many purposes like it reduces the occurrence of crimes, can monitor trafficking, which is yet another serious issue, and also keep a check on industrial operations that may sometimes cause serious harm to humans.
USA is in the second position after China, with over 50 million CCTV cameras installed, followed by Germany which has 5.2 million CCTV cameras installed. However, the USA tops the list of CCTVs per capita, that is to say, the USA tops the list based on the number of CCTVs per person. The list also has the UK with 5 million cameras installed, Japan also with 5 million cameras, followed by Vietnam that has 2.6 million CCTVs installed, France with 1.65 million CCTVs installed, South Korea stopping at 1.03 million, and the Netherlands at 1 million.
Just a single image of a person can identify his face, age, gender, ethnicity, and even can reveal the details of his family members. This helps in identifying miscreants and make the authorities alert about their whereabouts.
Installing CCTVs in various places enables the government to keep control of the vast population of the world. However, this trend is often being criticized by the citizens as they feel that their right to privacy is being affected by the installation of millions of CCTVs here and there by the government.
