Dahua Race and Skin Color Analytic Cameras

Four Dahua camera models specify video analytics that can detect "race", "skin color", and "Xinjiang/Tibet" facial attributes, IPVM has verified on Dahua's own website.

Dahua admitted the authenticity but alleged it was outdated and that they "appreciate IPVM for pointing out this error", alleging it was not "developed for commercial use" despite being specified in its own product pages.

This is the third case of Dahua offering such analytics, adding to the company's server-based "Uyghur warnings" and its SDK offering Uyghur tracking.

"Smart Features" Include "Race", "Skin Color", "Xinjiang/Tibet" Detection

The DH-IPC-HF8249F-FD lists "Smart Features" (智能功能) such as "face attribute extraction" (人脸属性提取); among these face attributes are "race" (人种) and "Xinjiang/Tibet (Custom Support Required)" 疆藏 (需定制支持):

Support face attribute extraction, support 7 attributes, 5 expressions: gender, age, glasses, expressions (angry, calm, happy, sad, surprised), masks, race, beard, Xinjiang/Tibet (Custom Support Required)

支持目标过滤 支持人脸检测，人脸优选抓拍，人脸区域曝光，人脸区域增强 支持人脸属性提取，支持7种属性，5种表情： 性别，年龄，眼镜，表情（生气，平静，高兴，悲伤，吃惊），口罩，人种，胡子，疆藏（需定制支持）[emphasis added]

The DH-IPC-MFW8449-ZHM-D47-LI-0832 offers "face attribute extraction" including Xinjiang/Tibet (Custom Support Required)" 疆藏 (需定制支持):

support face attribute extraction, support 6 attributes, 8 expressions: gender, Age, glasses, expression (angry, sad, disgusted, scared, surprised, calm, happy, confused), mask, beard, Xinjiang/Tibet (Custom Support Required)

支持人脸属性提取，支持6种属性，8种表情：性别，年龄，眼镜，表情（愤怒，悲伤，厌恶，害怕，惊讶，平静，高兴，困惑），口罩，胡子，疆藏（需定制支持) [emphasis added]

The DH-CP835-AU1F-LZF2070 has "face" (人脸) analytics for "race" (人种):

Face (except for the face in the car): age, gender, expression (angry, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness) , surprised, calm, confused), glasses, mask, beard, race

4、人脸（车内人脸除外）： 年龄、性别、表情（生气、厌恶、恐惧、高兴、悲伤、惊讶、平静、困惑）、眼镜、口罩、胡子、人种 [emphasis added]

The DH-SDT-5A404-C2F can detect facial attributes including "skin color" (肤色):

Functional benefits [...] 2. Face capture and attribute extraction supports 7 attributes and 8 expressions: gender, age, glasses, expressions (angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, sad, surprised, calm, confused), mask, skin color, beard [emphasis added]

功能优势 [...] 2.人脸抓拍及属性提取支持7种属性，8种表情：性别，年龄，眼镜，表情（生气、厌恶、恐惧、高兴、悲伤、惊讶、平静、困惑），口罩，肤色，胡子

Chinese Characters Examined

The Chinese characters used by Dahua translate directly to "race" and "skin color" in English, e.g. the concept of "race" (人种/Rén zhǒng) and "skin color" (肤色/fūsè lìrú) were covered by PRC state media Beijing Daily in 2013, which wrote that "Carl Linnaeus first proposed the four divisions of skin color 人种 and race 肤色" in the 18th century.

Dahua History of Race/Ethnicity Analytics

In November 2020, Dahua (inadvertently) went viral on Twitter after an engineer posted lines of code from Dahua's SDK showing "EM_NATION_TYPE_UYGUR" next to "维族(新疆)" which means "Uyghur (Xinjiang)". Dahua's SDK at the time also mentioned three distinct 'races' by skin color - "black", "white", and "yellow":

In February 2021, IPVM and The LA Times revealed Dahua technical documents for PRC police video surveillance systems which included "real-time Uyghur warnings/维族人员实时预警":

The video below explains how the "Uyghur warnings" worked:

Also in February 2021, IPVM revealed that Dahua’s client/end user facing software, SmartPSS, includes "race" as a "face recognition" category:

Finally, IPVM and Reuters revealed a national PRC police video surveillance standard, GA/T 1756-2020, which was co-authored by Dahua and included "skin color" tracking:

The standard specified that "face attributes" should support "skin color analysis":

The specific skin colors are "white, black, yellow, brown, other":

Another provincial standard co-authored by Dahua for Henan province police, DB41/T 1514—2017, included "SkinColor" tracking as well.

Xinjiang Projects

Dahua has won nearly $1 billion in huge Xinjiang police projects, including building and operating Xinjiang police station surveillance.

US Sanctions for Human Rights Abuses

In October 2019, Dahua was sanctioned by the US government, which cited "human rights violations and abuses" in Xinjiang as shown below:

Dahua Past Denials Examined

Despite the above strong evidence, Dahua has offered varying rationales and denials for its racial analytics:

• In November 2020, Dahua told The South China Morning Post that it "does not sell products that feature [an] ethnicity-focused recognition function".
• In February 2021, following the revelations of its "real-time Uyghur warnings", Dahua adjusted slightly, Dahua changed its position, qualifying that "we never provided products or services for ethnicity detection in Xinjiang, PRC" [emphasis added].
• In an August 2021 post, Dahua changed its position again, alleging "We have never developed a product or solution designed to identify or otherwise target any specific ethnic group."
• However, in an August 2022 letter to the FCC Dahua admitted the authenticity of their "Uyghur warning" documentation but alleged that it was a "historical internal software design requirement document" that "was never implemented by Zhejiang Dahua or put into commercial use," despite the detailed product documentation.

Dahua Admits, Deletes, "Deeply Troubled"

Now, Dahua admitted the authenticity of these four camera product pages but told IPVM it was "deeply troubled and concerned" about the material on its own website and had "launched an investigation", stating that "ethnic identification customization" was never developed "for commercial use". Dahua's full comment to IPVM is below:

Dahua is deeply troubled and concerned about the information contained in the screen shots shared with us. Upon receiving this information from IPVM we launched an investigation into the matter and can report the following findings.

The webpages shared with us were published at some point before 2018. Our investigation also found that no ethnic identification customization feature was ever developed for commercial use. As we have made clear on a consistent basis, we have not and never will develop for commercial use any solutions targeting specific ethnic group.

As a matter of company policy, we reaffirm our commitment to never develop solutions to identify a single ethnic, racial or national group. This commitment extends to every market in which we operate, anywhere in the world.

We appreciate IPVM for pointing out this error, and we will keep enhancing our efforts to practice our commitment to never develop products and solutions identifying or discriminating against single ethnic, racial or national group.

UPDATE - Dahua told IPVM it has "never provided any customer of any type" with racial analytics, ignoring IPVM's question asking whether it ever developed or offered a racial/ethnic identification feature for any customer:

We have never provided any customer of any type with a product or solution that targets a specific ethnic, racial, national or other type of group identification.

IPVM has followed up with Dahua asking if it has ever developed or offered the technology. [10/22/2022] Dahua has not responded to this.