Young Hong Kong residents protesting a proposed extradition law that would allow suspects to be sent to China for trial are seeking to safeguard their identities from potential retaliation by authorities employing mass data collection and sophisticated facial recognition technology.
Agnes, a second-year college student who declined to give her surname, said she donned a face mask as soon as she left a subway train in the downtown Admiralty district to join Wednesday's overnight protest by pro-democracy demonstrators.
The semi-autonomous Chinese territory has installed thousands of security cameras but the data is mostly kept private. In mainland China, the government openly uses the technology to track down people considered politically unreliable, particularly among Muslim Uighurs and other minority groups.
