Starting December 1st, China now requires telecom operators to collect face scans for new phone users.
In September, China's industry and information technology ministry issued a notice on "safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of citizens online", which laid out rules for enforcing real-name registration.
The notice said telecom operators should use "artificial intelligence and other technical means" to verify people's identities when they take a new phone number.
A China Unicom customer service representative told AFP that the December 1 "portrait matching" requirement means customers registering for a new phone number may have to record themselves turning their head and blinking.
Online social media reactions on Weibo (a Chinese Twitter-like service) showed both support and opposition to the move.
Oversight of social media has ramped up in recent years as part of the Chinese government's push to "promote the healthy, orderly development of the Internet, protect state security and public interest".
It seems likely that reaction to future measures will be uniformly positive.
(Score: 2) by Tokolosh on Monday December 02 2019, @07:18PM (3 children)
The USA has similar "Know you customer" (KYC) regulations. Try opening a bank account, getting a credit card, or activating a phone without some government ID. Biometric info is coming...
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02 2019, @09:12PM (1 child)
It's already in your passports and it's getting used as you travel across the airport.
https://www.biometricupdate.com/201909/new-airport-biometrics-deployments-and-technologies-on-the-horizon [biometricupdate.com]
It's not so much coming as it's already here.
Yeah. Same in Germany. Activated my phone in 2015, no problem. Now want a new SIM, need verification about where you live, who you are, blah blah blah. And passport is not good enough. So if you are a tourist, don't bother getting a German SIM or you'll be SOL. Easier to open a bank account than get a SIM card now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @05:56PM
That's because the valued new immigrants to Europe will use what they can for terrorism. The government doesn't even have to pull out chickenshit reasons.
You want freedom, you have to reclaim it. You have let Angela Merkel sit in the same chair for 14 years now. Your MSM lies to you, probably on behalf of the Americans, to cheerlead for tolerating uncontrolled immigration and badmouth any political Alternative.
It's in the German psyche to let "others" deal with the politics, as long as they get to feel safe, so I won't be holding my breath.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by zion-fueled on Monday December 02 2019, @11:47PM
You can get a prepaid phone without ID. Bank account not so much.
(Score: 3, Touché) by krishnoid on Monday December 02 2019, @08:06PM (3 children)
No frowning, now.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday December 02 2019, @09:01PM (2 children)
Uniform as in, all Chinese look the same. This really is security theater at its finest.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02 2019, @09:26PM
I thoght it was "turn your head and cough"?
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Tuesday December 03 2019, @02:59AM
Apparently it has to do with how recognition works and isn't unique to Chinese feature sets or particularly any other afaik, although presumably stronger and weaker in effect. If a westerner goes and lives among the Chinese for a length of time, the differences in features will become more obvious as their brain adjusts.
So long and short, they shouldn't hire some cowboy from Montana to differentiate their photos, but the Chinese themselves would have no problem with it, and perhaps more importantly the AI trained on that population wouldn't either.
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(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 02 2019, @08:19PM (3 children)
In Australia, drivers have to submit to face scans while driving. It's for the safety of us all.
(Score: 3, Informative) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Monday December 02 2019, @08:49PM
If you mean the photos on our licences then you're right. Otherwise, not so much.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday December 03 2019, @05:19PM (1 child)
Thankfully, I live in Texas, where we enjoy our personal freedoms. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2019/06/03/gov-greg-abbott-signs-red-light-camera-ban-into-law/ [dallasnews.com]
Still have that "Patriot Act" thing hanging around our necks like an acme anvil, though.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @07:47PM
i'll feel better about Texas when we get rid of the property tax and i can live on my paid-for land without some parasite piece of shit threatening to take it every year so some "migrants" can go to "school" on my dime.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday December 02 2019, @10:16PM (5 children)
Have they set up an Auschwitz yet?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by zion-fueled on Monday December 02 2019, @11:49PM (4 children)
In china, yes.They have all kinds of work/re-education/prison camps.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Tuesday December 03 2019, @01:41AM (2 children)
I know you mean well, but let's remember that Auschwitz was an extermination camp; no re-education or work. One was sen there to wait one's turn at the gas chambers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @02:28AM
The Chinese have that too, they're slightly different though, they harvest organs for transplant - I mean why waste a perfectly good organ.
It is part of their culture to not waste unnecessarily, hence why you see every poultry parts including organs being served in some shape or form in Chinese cuisine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @08:22PM
Let's remember that you're a brainwashed idiot spewing Jew propaganda. Do some research, Goyim.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by RandomFactor on Tuesday December 03 2019, @03:03AM
They have those camps in China? What are uighur talking about?
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