from Hacker News

China introduces facial-recognition step to get new mobile number

by adg29 on 10/3/19, 5:21 PM with 9 comments

  • by z2 on 10/3/19, 7:42 PM

    Hotels (and transit, and banks) in China have been doing this for a while now. If this is any similar, it would be some awkward police-sanctioned box with a webcam and RFID reader to first scan the person's ID card, and then make sure the person's face is the same as the photo on the ID. Note that a national ID has been strictly required for a long time already, and the general idea is to make sure nobody is borrowing someone else's ID to get service, something really easy to do given that Chinese IDs are like US Social Security numbers--easily stolen, sold for cheap, and not easily replaceable.

    Debates on all the hairy facial recognition issues aside, the main concern has been one that existed for decades, that people are being de-anonymized as a matter of policy for trivial things like entering a friend's apartment block or using a vending machine. Facial recognition is an enabler for sure, but even if ML didn't exist at all, authorities could (and here, would) just require IDs and the logging of IDs for every trivial transaction.

  • by dev_dull on 10/3/19, 8:01 PM

    This is why we need to take our constitution seriously folks. It’s not about carving out exceptions to parts of it we don’t like. It’s about saying “Unless you have reasonable suspicious they’re involved in a crime then you can pound sand.”

    “If you have nothing to hide...”

    No! You don’t have to prove your innocence to the government. The burden of proof is always on them. What’s they collect enough information they can make anyone they want into a criminal. AND THAT’S THE POINT.

  • by notadoc on 10/3/19, 7:19 PM

    What country will adopt this next?

  • by fuguza on 10/3/19, 8:47 PM

    Google selling facial recognition to China and China use it against people.

    Is anybody actually reading what these Google whistleblowers are saying ??

    Hong Kong is in bad shape at the moment!

  • by silentmajority1 on 10/3/19, 6:46 PM

    This is not new. Not only recording your face, voice is also recorded