A surveillance camera in downtown Beijing, China. Moscow's entire video-surveillance system is about to be equipped with what City Hall is billing as some of the most advanced facial-recognition software outside of China, claiming it will be more accurate and easier to search than London’s older, bigger network. — Reuters
The fourth of 10 basic rules Western spies followed when trying to infiltrate Russia’s capital during the Cold War – don’t look back because you’re never alone – is more apt than ever. Only these days it’s not just foreigners who are being tracked, but all 12.6 million Muscovites, too.
Officials in Moscow have spent the last few years methodically assembling one of the most comprehensive video-surveillance operations in the world. The public-private network of as many as 200,000 cameras records 1.5 billion hours of footage a year that can be accessed by 16,000 government employees, intelligence officers and law-enforcement personnel.
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