[liberationtech] For new phone services, Chinese citizens now required to scan their faces

[Tim Phillips]

Related: US House approves Uighur Act calling for sanctions on China's
senior officials. The vote was almost unanimous at 407-1. It has already
passed the Senate but will go back for another vote since the bill was
changed in the House.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/178

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/04/us-house-approves-uighur-act-calling-for-sanctions-on-chinas-politburo-xinjiang-muslim

On Tue, Dec 3, 2019 at 11:06 PM Yosem Companys <ycompanys at gmail.com> wrote:

> Unfortunately paywalled. -- YC
>
> *****
>
> China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said its
> facial-recognition efforts are aimed at minimizing telephone fraud and
> preventing the reselling and illegal transfer of mobile phone cards. But
> the requirement raises new privacy concerns, The Wall Street Journal’s
> Liza Lin and Shan Li report
> <https://cio.cmail19.com/t/d-l-xhyhtkl-ykkiutddtj-o/>.
>
> *True.* China is home to some of the world’s most prominent facial
> recognition startups, and citizens can make payments, board planes and
> enter office buildings with a quick scan of the face.
>
> *Also true*. The new regulation gives the Chinese state the ability to
> better track people based on ethnicity and other factors, Ben Cavender,
> Shanghai-based managing director at China Market Research Group, tells the
> WSJ. The technology's use in China has been controversial, most notably in
> Xinjiang, a region in the country’s northwest where authorities have used
> the technology to surveil its Uighur Muslim minority.
>
> *More companies in the U.K. try tracking faces*. The U.K. has more
> surveillance cameras per capita than any other country in the West. The
> Wall Street Journal's Parmy Olson reports
> <https://cio.cmail19.com/t/d-l-xhyhtkl-ykkiutddtj-b/> that businesses are
> taking advantage of Britain’s general comfort with surveillance to pair
> their own cameras with live facial-recognition technology. Companies are
> also now using watch lists compiled by vendors that can help recognize
> flagged people who set foot on company property.
> --
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