Before starting and comparing, we need to take a dig of what surveillance is? Why it is important and what are the different kinds of surveillance being practiced all around the globe.
Verbally, surveillance means observing closely and scrutinizing, especially in case of suspicion.
In a more in-depth context, surveillance is keeping track of attitudes, actions of persons for the reason of security, or any unauthorized activity. It can be said it is keeping a strict eye on any abnormal activity, which may give rise to crimes.
Government officials of a country use the surveillance system for evicting risks of criminal activities and intelligence gathering. Higher authorities also use it for the protection of a VIP person or crowd or precious object.
Strict surveillance makes a country’s intelligence system strong. It also helps in making a place or country secure to live. People are more likely to visit countries with a better security system. Those countries which have a strong surveillance system are ruling the globe security-wise and have a prominent and distinct level of support and respect.
At times, the surveillance system is criticized as a privacy-invading element. A lot of controversies are entitled to leaked information from a surveillance system.
Pros and cons of surveillance
Surveillance has a lot of advantages in terms of security, yet it has demerits too. Some of the top pros of surveillance are as follows:
- One of the top benefits of surveillance is, this is one of the best methods to collect public information in aggregate.
- It provides the most doubt, free evidence to make better decisions.
- It eliminates the risk of facing harmful actions or criminal activity.
- Surveillance ensures the safety and security of the public, VIP personality, or precious object.
- It gives a lead to proofs that could help solve cases.
- In case of any terrorist or crime-related activity, it becomes easier to catch the culprit through the help of surveillance.
- Not completely, but to some extent, it helps in guessing possible situations that could happen in the future.
- It provides real-time data.
Along with the benefits, there are some demerits of surveillance. Top of such disadvantages include:
- One major consequence is, it invades public privacy.
- It creates huge controversies in the case of leaked information data.
- In case of leaked CCTV footage on a national or international level, a specific view is assumed by the public about that city/country (relatedly to that footage).
- Cyber attackers may hack surveillance systems and misuse the data for criminal activity.
- Large surveillance systems are expensive to install.
- It is completely reliant on technology, which is subjected to the risk of low power electricity, short circuits, and viruses.
Top countries in Surveillance 2021
In the past few years, China ruled the globe in terms of the surveillance network. In 2021 Unites States of America came on second with a CCTV network by possessing approximately 2,239 cameras per 10K people.
Whereas China is in the race with 10,343 cameras per 10K people. China has an aggregate of 15,880,491 CCTV cameras overall.
The top 10 countries in the world by the number of CCTV cameras in major cities, CCTV cameras per 10K people, Total Data Requests, and Data Requests per 10K People are as follows:
| Position | Country Region | CCTV cameras in major cities | CCTV cameras per 10K people | Total Data Requests | Data Requests per 10K People |
| 1 | China | 15,880,491 | 10,343 | 94,866 | 1 |
| 2 | USA | 112,206 | 2,239 | 800,196 | 24 |
| 3 | UK | 628,975 | 618 | 117,848 | 18 |
| 4 | Singapore | 86,000 | 153 | 14,929 | 26 |
| 5 | Australia | 71,835 | 148 | 33,876 | 13 |
| 6 | Germany | 39,765 | 112 | 164,875 | 20 |
| 7 | Poland | 13,935 | 78 | 31,805 | 8 |
| 8 | Brazil | 40,842 | 143 | 111,555 | 5 |
| 9 | Hong Kong | 50,000 | 67 | 5,081 | 7 |
| 10 | India | 1,247,058 | 670 | 204,124 | 1 |
Source: websitetooltester.com
Most surveilled cities in the world
China is the country with the strongest surveillance. The top 5 most surveilled cities in China include the following.
| City | Country | Estimated # of CCTV Cameras | # of People | Cameras per square mile |
| Beijing | China | 10,448,410 | 20,896,820 | 1648.98 |
| Changchun | China | 2,260,348 | 4,520,695 | 3155.96 |
| Changsha | China | 2,347,361 | 4,694,722 | 3170.29 |
| Chengdu | China | 4,652,558 | 9,305,116 | 837.98 |
| Chongqing | China | 8,191,188 | 16,382,376 | 483.29 |
| Dalian | China | 2,887,969 | 5,775,938 | 1426.36 |
| Dongguan | China | 3,725,945 | 7,451,889 | 3914.89 |
| Foshan | China | 3,703,376 | 7,406,751 | 2492.66 |
| Fuzhou | China | 1,882,280 | 3,764,559 | 2757.10 |
| Guangzhou | China | 6,817,699 | 13,635,397 | 2375.15 |
Source: comparitech.com
According to the 2021 update, 11 out of the top 15 cities with the most surveillance belong to China. These Top 15 cities are:
| City | Country | # of CCTV Cameras | # of People | # of CCTV Cameras per 1,000 People | Cameras per Square Mile | Crime Index |
| Taiyuan | China | 465,255 | 3.98M | 117.02 | 174.39 | 34.31 |
| Wuxi | China | 300,000 | 3.32M | 90.49 | 472.66 | 7.84 |
| London | England (UK) | 691,000 | 9.43M | 73.31 | 1138.48 | 53.07 |
| Indore | India | 200,600 | 3.11M | 64.43 | 133.29 | 49.88 |
| Changsha | China | 262,000 | 4.69M | 55.81 | 353.85 | 21.38 |
| Beijing | China | 1,150,000 | 20.9M | 55.03 | 181.49 | 34.45 |
| Hangzhou | China | 400,000 | 7.85M | 50.98 | 61.52 | 19.78 |
| Qingdao | China | 262,000 | 5.74M | 45.62 | 415.80 | 8.59 |
| Kunming | China | 200,000 | 4.55M | 43.95 | 112.24 | 25.96 |
| Xiamen | China | 150,000 | 3.79M | 39.57 | 228.66 | 25.51 |
| Harbin | China | 250,000 | 6.53M | 38.31 | 63.45 | 23.66 |
| Hyderabad | India | 375,000 | 10.27M | 36.52 | 133.84 | 43.78 |
| Suzhou | China | 270,000 | 7.43M | 36.35 | 165.63 | 13.00 |
| Shanghai | China | 1,000,000 | 27.8M | 35.98 | 408.49 | 34.79 |
| Urumqi | China | 160,000 | 4.54M | 35.21 | 23.15 | 19.85 |
| Delhi | India | 551,500 | 16.35M | 33.73 | 1826.58 | 59.54 |
| Chengdu | China | 310,000 | 9.31M | 33.32 | 55.83 | 23.55 |
Source: comparitech.com
Why China is spying over their public
China is the most populated country in the world, as per source infoplease.com. Some people believe that the Chinese government is spying over their public, which is not true. The reason for the strongest surveillance system lies in the overpopulated public. Being a government, it becomes a liability to enforce corruption and the crime-free environment within the country. The government would never be able to control the crime ratio if there were no surveillance system. They need to keep a strict eye over each and every moment of individuals in order to evict criminal activities.
Cctv is the essential element to provide evidence of any activity that occurred against law and order.
In order to control and scrutinize the crime ratio of China, the government uses the strongest surveillance system for evidence of any activity against the law or any disloyalty as a citizen.
Somehow, it is globally perceived that china has given zero privacy to its citizens, as per the New York Times.
Importance of surveillance for cities
The importance of a surveillance system can not be neglected for any city on security purposes. It not only secures the city but also helps in the public analysis as an aggregate and systematic collection of data.
It analyzes the risk factors and antecedents of tracking. It reduces the government’s burden and imposes the best management control over the public in terms of any disloyalty as a citizen.
City surveillance improves security level in events of masses, controls traffic system. It has a great impact on human psychology when he is planning any crime or inappropriate activity.
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Aniba Khan
Aniba is a research analyst at Reviewsed.com. She is preparing for CSS, She is very passionate about Cybersecurity, and She loves to write about it.