TechCrunch reports contract data shows at least 100 U.S. communities purchased Chinese surveillance technology. Local governments purchased systems, including video cameras and thermal imagine scanners, from Hikvision and Dahua, both added to the U.S. government’s blacklist in 2019 and banned by Congress from purchase by federal agencies. Human Rights Watch Senior Researcher Maya Wang said the tech was introduced “without any kind of regulation to ensure that they comply with privacy standards.”