Is nowhere private? Chinese subway users upset by plans to install facial recognition systems
- Guangzhou’s metro operator will open one security channel fitted with new technology in each of four stations across the city on Friday
- Commuters must preregister using smartphone app, company says
Facial recognition systems will be introduced on Friday at four subway stations in a south China city in a bid to speed up security checks, officials said, while internet users complained of yet another breach of their privacy.
The technology will be used in just one security channel at each of the four stations in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, the city’s metro operator said on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service.
To use the new channels, passengers must first register their details, including a photograph, using the Guangzhou Metro’s official smartphone app.
“The registration process is voluntary,” the company said. “[And] information collected will be used only for security checks and not be passed on to our partner companies.”
Once registered, passengers will be able to use the dedicated channels and the system will recognise them from the information they registered, it said.
The metro operator said it had been working with a number of local technology companies on the project and would also be introducing new luggage scanners.