back to article China – which surveils everyone everywhere – floats facial recognition rules

China has released draft regulations to govern the country's facial recognition technology that include prohibitions on its use to analyze race or ethnicity. According to the the Cyberspace Administration of China(CAC), the purpose is to "regulate the application of face recognition technology, protect the rights and interests …

  1. Magani
    Big Brother

    Whoda thunk it?

    Pot, meet kettle.

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "help police crackdown on criminals and improve security"

    I'm not surprised that a dictatorship adopts facial recog. Par for the course.

    I am awaiting with great interest any news on how it handles false positives.

    Before, or after the bullet ?

    1. Petalium

      Re: "help police crackdown on criminals and improve security"

      After, but the relatives gets a 10% discount on the bullet

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "help police crackdown on criminals and improve security"

      Because democracies don't?

      1. Mobster

        Re: "help police crackdown on criminals and improve security"

        Democracies do as well, but their citizens can openly criticize them for it. Try that in China and let me know how it goes.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Question is

    Do they arrest 8 month pregnant women and charge them with car jacking based on facial recognition ?

    Thought so.

    1. MiguelC Silver badge

      Re: Question is

      They fine drivers for scratching their faces, so, why not?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Question is

        If you go beyond the title, that article says the ticket was dropped easily enough, they immediately understood the mistake.

        So it hardly compares with those US cops who did not admit that an 8-month pregnant woman was unlikely to be a carjacker and actually kept her in jail then sent her to court.

  4. Johnb89

    One rule for thee

    So obvs its totally way worse for China to have a set of rules that the police, party and security services can ignore* than it is for the UK and US security services to spy on citizens and residents when the law does not allow them to.

    Totally different, in the sense of being very similar.

    *Or maybe there's a secret law that says it doesn't apply to them

  5. magicaces

    Because China are the only ones that surveils every one every where...

    oh wait...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I was just in the brand new Chengdu Tianfu airport, facial recognition everywhere.

    And frankly, it was a mess.

    At passport control, their system happily picked another person's face, showing it with the wrong name, if there was more than one picked up by the camera.

    Later on, and apparently soon to be illegal, there was a kiosk using facial recognition to tell you which gate you were supposed to go.

    It didn't work, and helpfully suggested showing your boarding pass instead.

    Except then, the camera (thermal?) was unable to see the ink the passes were printed with : they were shown as completely blank on the screen.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @AC - In the mean time

      at Montreal International Airport the facial recognition kiosks work like a charm.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like