CloudWalk Technology

CloudWalk Technology Co. Ltd. is a Chinese developer of facial recognition software.[1]

The company has been sanctioned by the United States government for allegedly participating in major human rights abuses.[2][3]

History

CloudWalk was founded by Zhou Xi, a graduate of the University of Science and Technology of China with an academic background in artificial intelligence and pattern recognition.[4] CloudWalk was founded in April 2015, following Zhou's departure from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.[5][4]

In 2017, CloudWalk raised $379 million in Series B funding from investors including Shunwei Capital, Oriza Holdings, and Puhua Capital.[6][5]

Role in mass surveillance of the Uyghurs

On May 22, 2020, the United States Department of Commerce added CloudWalk Technology to its Entity List for its role in aiding the Chinese government in the mass surveillance of the Uyghur population. According to U.S officials, Cloudwalk Technology was, "complicit in human rights violations and abuses committed in China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR)".[7]

Customers

CloudWalk is the primary supplier of facial recognition technology to the Bank of China and Haitong Securities.[4]

In 2018, CloudWalk signed a deal to provide the government of Zimbabwe with a mass facial recognition system, which will monitor all major transportation hubs, as well as create a national facial ID database.[8][9]

References
  1. Chin, John; Bürge, Clément (December 19, 2017). "Twelve Days in Xinjiang: How China's Surveillance State Overwhelms Daily Life". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on November 11, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
  2. "US Adds 33 Chinese Companies, Institutions to Economic Blacklist | Voice of America - English". www.voanews.com. Archived from the original on 2020-05-23. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  3. "US sanctions 33 Chinese entities at lowest point of US-China relations". South China Morning Post. May 23, 2020. Archived from the original on May 24, 2020. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  4. Wang, Xinxing; Wang, Yingying (October 18, 2017). Zhecheng, Qian; Murphy, Colum (eds.). "Facial Recognition Company Founder Courts Banks for Business". Sixth Tone. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
  5. Han, Meghan (November 20, 2017). Sarazen, Michael (ed.). "Computer Vision Startup CloudWalk Collects US$375 Million". Medium. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
  6. Jiang, Sijia (November 23, 2017). Coates, Stephen; Sarkar, Himani (eds.). "Exclusive: China's SenseTime plans IPO, U.S. R&D center as early as 2018". Reuters. Archived from the original on December 29, 2017. Retrieved December 20, 2017. Several Chinese facial recognition start-ups have attracted large fundraising, helped by a government push to make China a world leader in AI. Guangzhou Cloudwalk Technology has recently received about $379 million in Series B funding, while Beijing-based Face++ last month raised $460 million.
  7. "Commerce Department to Add Nine Chinese Entities Related to Human Rights Abuses in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region to the Entity List". U.S. Department of Commerce. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  8. Hawkins, Amy (July 24, 2018). "Beijing's Big Brother Tech Needs African Faces". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on July 25, 2018.
  9. "向非洲出口黑科技 中国"鹰眼"将服务津巴布韦". Science and Technology Daily (in Chinese). April 12, 2018. Archived from the original on July 25, 2018. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
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