Introduction:
Facial recognition technology is widely used in China, leading to acclaim for its practicality and criticism over privacy issues. The broad use has also sparked an exponential rise in values for businesses specializing in the area, including AI behemoths SenseTime and Megvii.
Beijing is now intensifying its efforts to establish more apparent limitations for the technology’s use, which might result in substantial changes for the business. The action builds on the passage of significant digital rules aimed at cybersecurity, data security, and privacy protection in recent years.
A set of suggested guidelines for the use of face recognition technology were released on Tuesday by China’s primary internet regulating organization, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). Both in the public and private worlds, this technology has a wide range of applications, from facial recognition used for safe grocery store purchases to identification checks at airport gates. This technique is becoming more commonplace not just in China but also in the US.
Concerns about bias and privacy have been highlighted by critics of the use of facial recognition. They argue that some residential communities have restricted entry to buildings to facial scans. Concerns have also been raised concerning the impartiality and accuracy of algorithms, especially when it comes to recognizing the faces of minorities, which could result in the unfair targeting of particular groups.
The proposed laws appear to provide people more freedom to refuse to have their faces recognized in certain situations, but they have restrictions.
Facial recognition technology is widely used in China:
Facial recognition technology is widely used in China (Image Source: techcrunch.com)
In public places where facial recognition is being used, the rules underline the necessity for explicit signage. There are laws against forcing people to submit to facial scans for “business operations” or “service enhancements” in places like hotels, airports, and museums. Furthermore, a building’s entrance shouldn’t be controlled solely by facial recognition technology.
The use of the technology will result in higher operational costs for businesses and people. Companies that have facial data on more than 10,000 people are required to register with a local CAC office. The aim of collecting this data and any data protection strategies must be disclosed in the submission. Collectors are forbidden from keeping facial photographs in their original resolution unless permitted by specific people.
If the proposed procedures are successfully implemented, they could improve security in a sector that has historically been subject to lax regulation and reduce the likelihood of data handling errors. Millions of people’s sensitive biometric data have been compromised in recent years in China due to several significant biometric data breaches.
Especially in the case of Uyghurs, the nation has opposed the use of facial recognition technology to determine people’s nationalities; the recently enacted limits are unlikely to alter this opinion. Organizations and people are urged against utilizing facial recognition technology to generate profiles about race, ethnicity, religion, health, socioeconomic status, or other sensitive information unless it is judged required for factors like public safety and national security.
