[4][5] Due to its alleged involvement in mass surveillance of Uyghurs[6] and the Xinjiang internment camps[7] and national security concerns, the company has been placed under sanctions from the U.S. and European governments.

[15] In 2022, Hikvision was awarded a Chinese government contract to develop software to track "key people" in order to prevent them from entering Beijing.

[16][17] The same year, IPVM also reported that Hikvision has specific alarms in its software to alert Chinese police to "religion, Falun Gong, and various protest activities.

[18] In 2022, Hikvision won a "smart campus" contract with the Chinese government to alert university administrators of students fasting during Ramadan.

[25][26][27] In October 2019, Hikvision was formally placed on the Entity List by the U.S. government, which stated that it was involved in surveillance of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and of other ethnic and religious minorities in China.

[29] In response to the bans and sanctions, Hikvision has hired former U.S. ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper "to advise the company regarding human rights compliance"[30] as well as numerous lobbyists, including former U.S. senators David Vitter[31][32] and Barbara Boxer, former U.S. congressman Toby Moffett, and a former senior OFAC official.

[38] In September 2021, the Indian Navy's headquarters "asked its all formations to 'discontinue' procurement of CCTV cameras and surveillance systems from Hikvision," according to The Week.

[43] In June 2023, Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention declared Hikvision an "international sponsor of war" for supplying dual-purpose equipment to Russia that can be used for military purposes.

[44][45] In October 2023, Hikvision reportedly recommitted its operations to the United Kingdom after clarifying that the ban on its cameras on sensitive sites does not extend to public authorities or police stations.

[53] In March 2021, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declared that Hikvision services and equipment "pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security.

[56] In April 2023, BBC News reported that the US Department of Defense believes that Hikvision products are being white labeled and resold to the US government, creating a security risk.

[60] In 2017, the third largest shareholder was a private equity fund (新疆威讯投资管理有限合伙企业; Xīnjiāng Wēixùn) which had a 7% stake,[3]: 82  which is associated with then Hikvision general manager Hu Yangzhong.

[66] In May 2021, Italian public broadcaster RAI reported that Hikvision cameras automatically "opened communication channels with addresses registered in China" once connected to the internet.

[68] Forbes reported that the vulnerability, which has a CVSS base score of 9.8 out of 10, left dozens of Hikvision camera models "susceptible to remote hijacking" without requiring a username or password.