The first case of Chinese face recognition
Editor’s note: This article is from daily News , author: Sun Zhicheng, authorized reprint.
Recently, the “China Face Recognition First Case” occurred in Hangzhou, causing public concern.
According to the Beijing News, not long ago, Guo Bing, an associate professor at Zhejiang University of Technology, received a text message from the Wildlife World of Hangzhou, suggesting that his zoo card could not be used normally without face recognition.
Guo Bing did not agree to accept face recognition. On the 28th of October, he filed a lawsuit with the People’s Court of Fuyang District, Hangzhou. The local court has now decided to formally accept the case.
Image Source: Photographic Network (unrelated to graphics)
University professors bring the zoo to court
According to the Beijing News, on April 27, 2019, Guo Bing spent 1360 yuan to purchase the annual card of Hangzhou Wildlife World. The card is valid for one year, no limit, and the card and fingerprint should be verified at the same time. On October 17, 2019, the park sent a text message to him saying that “the annual card system has been upgraded to face recognition and the original fingerprint identification has been canceled. From now on, users who have not registered face recognition will not be able to enter the park normally.”
According to Qianjiang Evening News, Guo Bing believes that facial features are sensitive personal information. Once leaked, illegally provided or abused, it is very easy to endanger the safety of consumers and property. According to Article 29 of the Consumer Protection Law, “the operator shall collect and use the personal information of the consumer in accordance with the principles of lawfulness, dueness and necessity, and clearly indicate the purpose, manner and scope of the collection and use of the information, and with the consent of the consumer. .”
According to this, Guo Bing believes that Hangzhou Wildlife World has forcibly collected his personal biometric information by upgrading the annual card system without his consent, which is a serious violation of the Consumer Protection Law and other laws. Relevant regulations.
“I take fingerprints, I agree. But I collect face information, I refused. Is it because I refused to collect face information, as an annual card user, I can’t enjoy the right to enter the park?” Say.
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Guo Bing said that he has some research on the protection of personal information including face recognition. “Like the popular face-changing software has been controversial, I have always been conservative in face information collection. For example. There are extremely uncertain security risks in the collection and use of face information. Public security and other government departments can accept face information for a certain public interest. I can accept it, but an animal entertainment playground can also collect face information and security. I have doubts about sex and privacy. Who can be responsible for information disclosure?”
On October 28, 2019, Guo Bing sued Hangzhou Wildlife World to the court, requesting the other party to refund the card fee of 1360 yuan, and bear the legal costs of the case.
Flipprint is too slow to change to face recognition
According to Qianjiang Evening News, Hangzhou Wildlife World is located in Fuyang District, which is a large-scale wild zoo. Adult tickets are 220 yuan at a time. If you purchase an annual card, the purchaser can visit the park unlimited times during the one-year validity period.
“Because it is more cost-effective, the annual card purchases are many, the users have about 10,000 people.” Hangzhou Wildlife World staff said.
The annual card can only be used by the purchaser himself. The method of checking the ticket is double confirmed by the annual card and the fingerprint of the person.
Double inspection method, in the process of practice, gradually encountered some problems. “Fingerprinting takes a long time. During the peak holiday season, the annual card users get stuck in the fingerprint card. Some people suddenly do not get fingerprints in, or the fingerprint machine reacts slowly, which will cause the doorway to be very congested.
Therefore, some card users will complain to the staff: Your fingerprints are too slow to punch, can you change the way you enter the park? In fact, the Hangzhou Wildlife World is also planning “smart tourism”, and the check-in and security screening models are also among them.
After the preliminary inspection, they chose face recognition. In July of this year, the face recognition ticket checking system was officially introduced, and the original fingerprint ticket gate was removed.
On October 17, Hangzhou Wildlife World sent information to the annual card users that the park’s annual card system has been upgraded to face recognition and the original fingerprint identification has been cancelled. On November 2, according to the Beijing News, this afternoon, a staff member of the Hangzhou Wildlife World confirmed that fingerprint identification has been canceled. The admissioner can only enter face information at the annual card center and enter the park through face recognition.
Face recognition disputes continue
According to Southern Metropolis Daily, in 2010, Facebook launched “tag recommendations” (Tag SThe uggestions function, through the face recognition technology to find friends in the user’s photo, remind the user to mark the friend. However, some users objected to the feature, saying that Facebook illegally collected and stored biometric data, infringing their privacy rights.
In 2015, Illinois citizens Adam Pezen, Carlo Licata, and Nimesh Patel filed suit against Facebook. They said that Facebook did not explicitly inform, collect or store biometric data, did not obtain written consent from the user, and did not state the retention period of the data, in violation of the requirements of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). .
In fact, the “tag suggestion” feature has been in deep privacy disputes in recent years. In July of this year, Facebook agreed to pay $5 billion to settle a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on related privacy. In September, Facebook announced that the feature was turned off by default.
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According to foreign media reports, Facebook’s appeal was recently rejected by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The case will enter the proceedings unless the Supreme Court intervenes. A judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States believes that the face data collected by Facebook may be used for face matching or video unlocking in video surveillance.
The penalty for class actions is greater than the previous record of $5 billion in settlement payments. According to the BIPA, the fine for each negligent violation is $1,000, and the fine for each intentional violation is $5,000. This means that in the case, for 7 million users in Illinois, Facebook may face a fine of $1,000 to $5,000 per user, up to $35 billion.
In early September, an AI face-changing app called “ZAO” caused widespread public concern. As the first explosion-level AI face-changing application in China, ZAO’s face-changing operation threshold is very low. After the user completes the portrait right verification through face recognition, the video can be synthesized by shooting or uploading a face photo. It brought a technology that was previously only heard to real life, which caused many controversies. For example, personal biometric information such as collecting faces was not explicitly agreed by the user, the rules for processing personal information were unclear, the right to obtain images was excessively obtained, copyright infringement,Data leakage or risk of abuse, etc. As the relevant disputes continue to ferment, ZAO has made adjustments to the way in which users agree to and the terms of the user agreement and privacy policy.
The popularity of ZAO has also caught the attention of the regulatory authorities. On September 3, the Network Security Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology conducted an interview with the relevant person in charge of Beijing Mo Mo Technology Co., Ltd., and asked them to organize self-inspection and rectification in strict accordance with the requirements of national laws and regulations and relevant competent authorities. Use user personal information, standardize the terms of the agreement, and strengthen the security protection of network data and user personal information. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also pointed out that it is necessary to further strengthen the safety assessment of new technologies and new businesses, and effectively take effective measures to actively prevent potential risks arising from the use of telecommunications network frauds.