Executive summary Back to contents 08 Naypyidaw. We investigate who is building CCTV technology, who buys such technology, the purported use cases intended for these technologies, and their resulting implications against the backdrop of a military coup. The findings presented here are useful to civil society actors for thinking through the potential harms arising from the use of CCTV cameras and subsequent AI applications in Myanmar and beyond, particularly in jurisdictions where similar crises are likely to happen. With information gathered from media reports, government tenders, leaked government documents, and interviews conducted before the military coup, we discuss how smart city technologies are currently procured in Myanmar to highlight a crucial stage of smart city deployment that civil society is rarely able to influence. We also analyse the impact of such technologies on human rights, particularly freedom of expression, privacy, and freedom of peaceful assembly, and demonstrate the need for a more rigorous analysis of the potential impact of technical infrastructure from the stage of procurement to deployment. Finally, we draw attention to the lack of transparency and the pieces of information that are not known to us to highlight the difficulty and secrecy of the working of the government’s infrastructure. Overarchingly, we point to how opacity is normalised as a feature and not a bug within Myanmar’s technology procurement framework and we provide recommendations for a way forward. In this report, we lay down the essential components of a rightsrespecting framework for developing smart cities in Myanmar, and make recommendations to the military junta in Myanmar, and to the private sector. The military junta should stop purchasing, developing, and using technologies, particularly emotion recognition technologies, that impact human rights. The private sector should stop selling and deploying equipment for smart city infrastructures to authoritarian dictatorships. They should also ensure that the design, development, and use of smart city infrastructures adhere to the UN's Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Risk assessment reports and associated procedures to mitigate risks must be carried out, published, and communicated effectively. We consider the findings from this report as a first step towards equipping civil society and investigative journalists with the information necessary to push back against mass surveillance and repressive uses of technology in Myanmar and beyond.