Why is China using facial recognition on garbage bins?

Public housing residents are now having their faces scanned to keep them from subletting

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Dispose your trash correctly. Big brother is watching. (Picture: The Beijing News)

Karen Chiu

Published: 9:08pm, 2 Aug 2019Updated: 9:10am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Ever dream of having trash cans keep an eye on you with facial recognition to make sure you’re sorting your trash correctly? The dream is alive in Beijing.

Facial recognition cameras are being set up in residential areas, too, in a bid to crack down on tailgating and illegal subletting.

The face scanning software used in Beijing public housing is supplied by surveillance company Uniview. (Picture: CNS TV via Uniview)

This is just the latest implementation of facial recognition systems in China as the technology creeps further into people’s private lives. Public areas in the country’s biggest cities are already littered with facial recognition cameras designed to catch jaywalkers at crosswalks, check in passengers at train stations, and dispense toilet paper in public washrooms.

Now the tech is showing up in the residential communities of government-subsidized housing in the nation’s capital, according to the South China Morning Post.

Residents of more than a dozen Beijing public housing estates are now required to scan their faces at automated entrance gates. Only official residents and registered delivery people are allowed to pass.

The system is said to be designed for two purposes: Preventing strangers from following residents into the complex and preventing residents from subletting their apartments, which is illegal for government housing. Authorities say the system stores data on about 130,000 residents living across the city’s 59 public housing projects, state media reported. The plan is to cover all of these neighborhoods by October.