Well, they 'misstated' (lied), got caught, and feel they have constructed an acceptable reason for being (how do they state it in the US and elsewhere.....'less then truthful'...no thats not it....I know we can control the language with one or more of these...
fabricate, fib, prevaricate, perjure, equivocate, fudge, deceive, delude, dupe, fool, gull, hoodwink, snow, trick, falsify, misreport, misrepresent, misstate, distort, misinform, mislead
Yes I was lazy - the above terms were borrowed from the pages of Merriam Webster ). Maybe they should have just come up with a code-word or number to describe the ethnicity (among other analytics) in their code and documentation. They really should have had a bean-bag sit-down with the folks at G***l* and Amaz** (the G-word and A-word) - now, they know how to profile everything. Better document control and less feature description(the 'just figure it out for yourself' method) in the future, may be tried, as the demand will most likely not simply go away. My gosh, how are we (the rest of the world) to re-train them (and others) not to profile by ethnicity or any other data-set so the need no longer exists - guess is we won't. Where there is a need, greed, and ability, someone will fulfill the need. I wonder how the UK, US and AU are so good at concealing (or just getting away with it) the fact that they ('they' being a variety of LE agencies, non-LE agencies, public and private companies, even private individuals) too are profiling everything under the sun via ever evolving AI analytics. Maybe just force those that want the 'bad' capabilities to develop the custom code themselves (wait..some already do). Maybe only order products with NO AI analytics (educate customers on the potential misuse scenarios, but really, in that deep, dark part of their minds they don't talk about, they still want it...all of it) and if a MFG doesn't offer products AI-free, then watch as profit margins plunge; bring them to their knees. But wait, they may not need 'regular commercial' customers with govmt funded/sponsored-clientele . Maybe we shouldn't pick and choose which analytics are 'good' or 'bad'; they may all eventually be bad (they may already be..depends on who you're speaking with). None of our customers really want to know about suspicious activities, known-thieves, prostitutes, drug-users/dealers, particular ethnicity presence(what does ethnicity have to do with anything anyways - there isn't any statistical data supporting the need for this), known child molesters or any of that silly data/meta-data (even if historical statistical data supports bad things happening as relate to the various data-sets) - don't lie to yourself, yes they want it.. Particular data-set categories and options of said categories are viewed by some to be simply immoral and unethical. Some will also argue that humans are so much better at determining who is OK and who isn't anyways, since the beginning of time. Maybe, force those lazy PRC to be on the lookout with other humans for anything or anyone they feel they need to monitor, torture or kill in the name of 'natl security'. Some may say shame on Dahua (and others) for inventing solutions to support diabolic needs; no one has ever done that before or will again (who else comes to mind........). But remember; AI and analytics are Grrrreat for everything else. Good job for outing those bad guys; liars, in a time where lying has become the 'norm' (that was not sarcasm, truly); hopefully you have much much much more time on your hands to get the rest (of the bad guys). It may be time to begin training your kids, kids-kids and kids-kids-kids to become investigative and unbiased reporters; we probably need more of those.
Nice job reporting, as usual.
-Cheers from the realm of reality.