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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