Maltese government ditches controversial Huawei ‘Safe City’ CCTV company
The Maltese government has decided to put an end to the Safe City Malta project, a state-run venture that sought to install facial recognition CCTV systems provided by the Chinese tech giant Huawei in touristic hot spots. This initiative was developed by the Muscat administration and Huawei, but quickly raised alarm bells amongst global privacy advocates including Prof. Joseph Cannataci, UN Special Rapporteur on Privacy.
In 2018, the Labour administration announced the installation of this surveillance system in ‘problem areas’ such as Paceville and Marsa. This spying project was supposed to be implemented through a public-private collaboration between Safe City Malta and Huawei. But soon after, Prof. Cannataci cautioned against this decision, noting that only a high risk situation would justify the implementation of such technology in Malta.
Source: Maltese government ditches controversial Huawei ‘Safe City’ CCTV company
