FCC bans two devices with surveillance chips linked to Huawei

What happened

The banned items — a wireless video transmitter and dashboard camera — are made with chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon, which markets its products as “designed for the surveillance market.” The banned items — a wireless video transmitter and dashboard camera — are made with chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon, which markets its products as “designed for the surveillance market” with “[b]uilt in detection algorithms for human faces,” the FCC said . Huawei is an information and communications technology and telecommunications company based in Shenzhen.

New rules took effect on October 13 that bans devices containing smart components made by companies on a so-called covered list, an official public directory the agency maintains under a 2019 regulation identifying video surveillance, communications and general technology products believed to threaten national security. Before the new regulations were implemented, agency rules did not ban “otherwise lawful devices” from including component parts manufactured by covered list entities, the press release said. Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment.