Singapore (AFP)

Singapore is testing new robots that patrol the streets and reprimand residents for engaging in "unwanted social behavior", raising new concerns about privacy in the Southeast Asian city-state.

This new weapon is in addition to an already well-stocked panoply of surveillance technologies: the island of Singapore already has a large number of surveillance cameras and streetlights equipped with facial recognition technology, allowing authorities to track movements of residents.

The government has long promoted the idea of ​​a hyper efficient and technologically advanced “smart nation”.

Activists believe, however, that the right to privacy is being sacrificed and that residents do not have enough control over the use of their data.

Singapore has often been criticized for suppressing civil liberties and its people are accustomed to multiple checks but there are signs of growing unease with intrusive technology.

The patrolling wheeled robots, Singapore's latest innovation, are equipped with seven cameras that detect "unwanted social behavior" and give warnings to offenders.

Smoking in an unauthorized area, improperly parking your bike or not respecting the rules of social distancing linked to Covid-19, can all be blacklisted behaviors.

The robot Xavier on patrol in a residential and commercial district of Singapore, September 6, 2021 Roslan RAHMAN AFP

During a recent patrol, one of the robots named "Xavier" moved towards social housing buildings and stopped in front of a group of retirees who were watching a game of chess.

"Please keep a meter distance, please don't gather more than five people," the robot said, pointing its camera at the group.

Two robots of this model were deployed to monitor the residence and a shopping center during a three-week trial in September.

"Reminds me of Robocop," observes Frannie Teo, a 34-year-old research assistant passing through the mall.

It gives the impression "of a dystopian world of robots (...) and I still have doubts about this kind of concept", she confessed.

- "No limits" -

Lee Yi Ting, a digital rights activist, points out that these robots add to many other innovations to monitor Singaporeans.

"This contributes to the feeling that people have (...) that we have to be careful about what we say and what we do in Singapore, much more than in other countries", says -she to AFP.

But the government defends its use of the robots, explaining that they were not used to identify offenders or crack down on them during testing, and that they are necessary due to a lack of manpower.

"The working population is decreasing", underlines Ong Ka Hing, collaborator of the government agency which developed the "Xavier" robots to be able to mobilize fewer police officers for the patrols.

The island of some 5.5 million inhabitants has 90,000 cameras for the police, a number that is expected to double by 2030. It also uses facial recognition, via devices often installed on streetlights, to identify people in a crowd.

A man calls out to the robot Xavier, on patrol in a residential and commercial district of Singapore, September 6, 2021 Roslan RAHMAN AFP

Singapore experienced a rare protest movement this year when authorities admitted that data collected by an app dedicated to tracking coronavirus cases had been passed on to the police.

The government then passed a law limiting the use of this data.

But the city-state is criticized by rights defenders who denounce widespread surveillance by the government, which knows few limits.

Singaporeans also have very little control over the processing of the data collected.

"There is no law that imposes constraints on respect for privacy or defines what the government can or cannot do," said Indulekshmi Rajeswari, a Singaporean privacy lawyer who is now based in Germany

© 2021 AFP