Motorists on Danish roads will not be filmed with any new camera equipment purchased from China, after the Danish Roads Directorate decided to replace equipment from Chinese company Hikvision.

The decision will give Danish authorities better cyber security in its road surveillance systems, the authority told media Altinget.

“The Danish Roads Directorate is currently reviewing our roadside equipment to ensure it complies with relevant guidelines from the Centre for Cybersecurity,” it stated.

Some 170 new cameras were purchased by the Danish Roads Directorate in late 2022 from Hikvision, the world’s biggest manufacturer of surveillance cameras.

The deal, which cost around 5 million kroner, was widely criticised with both security agencies and human rights organisations having previously voiced concerns about the company.

Hikvision cameras are among Chinese surveillance products already banned in the United States, which said they constitute an “unacceptable” national security risk.

The company has previously been linked to human rights abuses in China.

An expert in the area, Aalborg University’s Professor Jens Myrup Pedersen, told Altinget that Danish authorities were right to recognise potential security risks in the equipment.

“There can be a concern that these systems are created with back doors which you might not necessarily be aware of,” he said.

“That could mean the Chinese government, for example, might be able to access data if it found this interesting at some point,” he said.

The concerns are related to Chinese security laws which oblige private individuals and businesses in China to hand over data to authorities if asked to do so.