Sales of digital surveillance systems are not currently restricted by the European Union despite posing risks to privacy and other freedoms in countries that lack adequate safeguards, Amnesty International said...

Amnesty said it had conducted an investigation that found several European companies had sold digital monitoring systems to China...

IDEMIA said the sale had involved an old-generation system for the identification of faces on recorded footage rather than live surveillance, adding it “did not and does not sell facial recognition technologies to China”...

Axis Communications [...] said network video solutions were used all over the world to help increase security and safety, adding that it had “export control mechanisms” and a “systematic screening of customers”...

Noldus said it was technically impossible to use its software – designed for the study of human behaviour – for the purposes of mass surveillance.

“We have never come across a single instance where human rights were violated with the aid of our software,” it said in a statement...

A spokeswoman for the Council of the European Union, which represents the member states, said negotiations to review the regulations were ongoing.