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Facial recognition payments are a privacy risk, says China central bank official
Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay made facial recognition payments mainstream, but there are flaws
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
In China, it’s already common to see people paying for stuff using only their face through facial recognition both in smartphone apps and at properly equipped payment terminals in stores. Unfortunately for all the people now using the feature, one official at China’s central bank warned that it’s not very safe.
Consumers should realize that they’re giving up privacy for convenience, said Li Wei, director of the technology department of the People’s Bank of China, at a fintech summit in Beijing. “What’s to be happy about? This has to be considered,” he said.
Li said that faces are very sensitive personal information, and it could have a huge impact on someone if it were leaked or stolen. While people can put their bank cards in their pockets, Li said, faces are out in the open all the time.
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He added that some companies (he didn’t name any) have not considered these questions. He also said it's dangerous to have users pay by scanning their faces while inputting their phone numbers on a big screen, a common method of double verification when paying with facial recognition.
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Chinese companies have been charging ahead in incorporating facial recognition into payment apps, facing few regulatory roadblocks or pushback from the public. Both Alipay and WeChat Pay, which control more than 90% of the $41.51 trillion market by transaction volume, support facial recognition payments. In 2018, China had more than 583 million mobile payment users, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).
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