A deal between the Zimbabwean government and Chinese company CloudWalk Technology to implement a mass facial recognition project raised concerns among digital rights advocates and human rights groups.

Under the agreement, CloudWalk would help establish a national facial recognition database and provide the technology for its application at airports, railway stations and bus stations.

This deal marked China's first major AI technology export to Africa under its Belt and Road Initiative, and was seen as part of a broader effort by China to drive the proliferation of AI surveillance technology and the rise of authoritarianism across Africa.

Critics argued the technology poses risks to citizens' privacy and civil liberties, especially given Zimbabwe's poor human rights record. They also warned that the facial recognition system could enable unwarranted surveillance and the collection of citizens' biometric data without sufficient safeguards. 

The lack of robust data protection laws in Zimbabwe was seen to makes it difficult to hold the government and foreign entities accountable for how they use Zimbabwean citizens' data.

Critics also noted that the project was intended to improve the ClidWalk's facial recognition algorithms for darker-skinned individuals. By gaining access to a population with a different racial mix than China, CloudWalk aims to train its systems to better identify African faces.

This raised concerns about racial bias in the technology, as studies show that many facial recognition algorithms exhibit higher error rates for people with darker skin tones. The export of this technology to Africa could exacerbate these biases and lead to discriminatory outcomes.

The CloudWalk project was also seen to lack transparency and oversight. The details of the agreement between the Zimbabwean government and CloudWalk were not publicly available, and it was unclear what specific safeguards, if any, are in place to protect citizens' rights and prevent the misuse of the system.