{"id":382765,"date":"2025-12-31T14:46:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T14:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/382765\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T14:46:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T14:46:34","slug":"australia-has-a-surveillance-system-similar-to-china-the-freedoms-we-enjoy-could-all-be-gone-in-three-years-expert-sounds-ai-alarm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/382765\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia has a surveillance system similar to China… the freedoms we enjoy could all be gone in THREE years: Expert sounds AI alarm"},"content":{"rendered":"

An expert has warned Australia is just years away from becoming an Orwellian dystopia, with every move monitored as AI is integrated into surveillance systems.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr Raffaele Ciriello, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney<\/a>, told Daily Mail surveillance cameras were already ‘everywhere’ and that AI would ‘add an extra layer’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘It’s already here to a large extent, but maybe in the next three to five years – ten years at most – I estimate that surveillance is going to be the norm,’ he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Ciriello added that Australia has built a surveillance system similar to that of China, though he highlighted there is no national strategy in either country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘What we have is actually not that different to what exists in China<\/a>,’ he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘They have various legal frameworks (using surveillance) that give various penalties for people who break the law, not unlike what we have in Western countries. But that’s more on a regional-state level. It’s not nationally unified.’<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Queensland<\/a> Audit Office report, published in September, revealed the state government has limited oversight over the ethical use of AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Looking at the implementation of AI image-recognition technology that detects phone and seatbelt offences in cars, it found officials ‘have limited visibility on AI use and emerging ethical risks’.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

More officials in Australia are exploring the use of AI surveillance in day-to-day life<\/p>\n

The report also suggested the scheme\u00a0could be breaching Queenslanders\u2019 privacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The City of Melbourne<\/a> Council has also debated plans this year to introduce a privately operated camera and 3D mapping sensor system to monitor crowds on New Year\u2019s Eve – and is considering making the technology permanent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both policies have raised broader questions about what risks come with surveillance, including technology run by AI, and how it could spread across Australia.<\/p>\n

Dr Ciriello offered a bleak prediction of Australia’s future if the trends continue to escalate.<\/p>\n

‘What it looks like is some form of Orwellian dystopia where we have that large-scale technology in every public sphere,’ he said.<\/p>\n

‘People just get used to it, but because of the way these AI systems are inherently biased, it’s probably going to disproportionately target minorities and underserved populations.<\/p>\n

‘It’s going to lead to increased scrutiny towards racial and ethnic minorities. They are going to be particularly hard hit.’<\/p>\n

A separate issue Dr Ciriello raised was the way some people react to the knowledge they are under surveillance, citing observations made by a colleague who specialises in performative crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Surveillance <\/p>\n

Surveillance will be the norm for Australians in the next three to five years, Dr Raffaele Ciriello, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, has warned<\/p>\n

‘Apparently, there’s a huge trend in NSW where teenagers deliberately exploit surveillance cameras to get filmed and then they put it on TikTok as an attention contest,’ he said.<\/p>\n

‘Some people exploit that attention and deliberately commit crimes. Others shift the activity elsewhere, where it’s less transparent.<\/p>\n

‘Every street you’re walking, you’re being monitored and tracked and that changes your entire behaviour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘There’s no real public space and no real private space anymore because everywhere, someone is watching and something is being tracked.’<\/p>\n

The Queensland government and Melbourne City Council are not the first to implement AI surveillance<\/a>, with Dr Ciriello adding that major retailers like Kmart and Bunnings have brought in technology to detect theft.<\/p>\n

‘We’ve used it in the Australian Open with facial recognition technology and now we’re using image recognition in traffic on streets,’ he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, when asked whether there is a risk of over-surveillance, he confirmed it is a serious issue from his perspective.<\/p>\n

‘With a European background, I’m routinely shocked at the things that are happening here (Australia), because that would lead to a huge outcry in Europe,’ he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Dr <\/p>\n

Dr Ciriello said the level of surveillance in Australia is similar to that in China (pictured visitors being filmed by AI cameras with facial recognition technology in Beijing in 2018)<\/p>\n

Dr Ciriello said he spent the first 20 years of his life in Germany where ‘people have extremely strong privacy concerns for historical reasons’.<\/p>\n

‘They have first-hand experience, first during the Nazi regime and then in Eastern Germany as part of the Soviet Union, there’s the history which makes Germans today extremely concerned about privacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I grew up in that environment, and surveillance infrastructure is definitely far more advanced here (in Australia).’<\/p>\n

He added that policies like the Albanese government’s much-lauded social media ban for under-16s also normalise AI surveillance.<\/p>\n

The ban was launched on December 10, with platforms and parents on the hook to keep kids off.<\/p>\n

But Dr Ciriello explained that platforms will be reliant on AI algorithms to ascertain whether a user is underage by looking at their search history.<\/p>\n

‘I think most people are already resigned to the fact we just live in a completely over-surveilled society,’ he said.<\/p>\n

‘The surveillance is not only coming from the state but also from commercial providers at various levels (like social media platforms).<\/p>\n

\"Dr <\/p>\n

Dr Ciriello (pictured) warned increased surveillance could target minorities in Australia<\/p>\n

‘The data is often repackaged and sold on. The technological infrastructure is there, but what is lacking in Australia are the democratic oversight mechanisms.’<\/p>\n

Asked whether the rise in use of AI surveillance could encroach on Australians’ freedoms, Dr Ciriello asked: ‘What freedom?’<\/p>\n

‘We’re not only at risk of losing that, we’ve already lost it in a way,’ he said.<\/p>\n

‘There’s no such thing as privacy anymore. Everything is being monitored. Everything is online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘We’ve given up a lot already and the general tendency is towards further erosion of privacy.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An expert has warned Australia is just years away from becoming an Orwellian dystopia, with every move monitored…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,512,100,44,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-382765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-china","14":"tag-dailymail","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}