Following various rumors, China will now start scanning faces before issuing a new mobile phone or a new SIM card to people living in the country.
The new rule is introduced by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and was announced back in September.
This mandate is to ensure that the rights and interests of the citizens of China are well protected.
For those who don’t know, China already requires the people to submit their national ID proofs before applying for a new SIM or buying a new mobile phone.
The rule is now applicable in the country.
China’s New Rule Impacts
The submission of an ID proof clubbed with a face scan will ensure no fraudulent activity takes place. There will be lesser unknown users, and the Chinese government will be able to identify the users quickly.
However, it might lead to privacy concerns as the Chinese government will get hold of user data, and there is no word on whether or not the face data will be removed after the process is completed.
China’s Use Of Facial Recognition
This is obviously not the first time China is using facial recognition technology. The country is known to use facial recognition tech for various purposes, such as CCTV surveillance.
The country has also set up a similar system to detect human emotions, mainly to identify criminal suspects.
Following the footsteps of China, India is also planning to set up a facial recognition system for policing. This will be done by developing a central repository of the data that will be tracked.
