US tech companies helped build some of the most sophisticated surveillance systems in the world.
And they did it for profit.
In this episode of Rethinking Tech, Aparna and Harinda unpack how American companies reportedly pitched technology to Chinese police as tools for population control — and why this story is not only about China.
At the center of this conversation is a deeper question: when surveillance becomes a business opportunity, can democracies really assume these tools will stay somewhere else?
What this episode explores
- How American tech companies became involved in China’s surveillance infrastructure
- Why surveillance technology became a profitable business model
- How tools developed for policing and control can move across borders
- Why similar surveillance practices are appearing in the US, UK, EU, and other democracies
- How Big Tech companies are becoming geopolitical actors
- Whether the relationship between governments and tech companies is becoming harder to separate
Why this matters
Mass surveillance does not always begin with ideology.
Sometimes it begins with a contract.
A database. A policing tool. A social scoring system. A surveillance camera. A platform that makes it easier to classify, track, and control people.
Once those systems are built, they rarely stay contained. The same technologies that help one government monitor its citizens can be repackaged, resold, and normalized elsewhere.
And as American Big Tech becomes more closely aligned with government power, the question is no longer just what these companies are building.
It is who they are building it for — and who ends up being watched.
About Rethinking Tech
Rethinking Tech explores the intersection of technology, geopolitics, business, and ethics — focusing on how systems actually work, not just how they’re talked about.
