As has been rumored in recent days, China will scan the faces of its citizens before issuing a new cell phone or a new SIM card.
This new rule was introduced by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technologyand was first announced in September.
This specific rule has been drafted in order to ensure the safety and interests of the country's citizens.
In case you are not aware, China requires its citizens to submit their national IDs when they wish to purchase a new mobile phone or a new SIM card.
The new rule is already being implemented in the country.
What are the impacts of the new rule?
Submitting a recognized certificate in combination with facial scanning will ensure that no fraud is carried out against anyone else. There will be fewer unknown users and the Chinese government will be able to locate a user more quickly.
Of course, this process raises concerns about the security of citizens' personal data , since the government will be holding a lot of sensitive information . It has also not yet been clarified whether citizens' facial data will be deleted or retained after the scanning process is complete.
This is not the first time China has used facial recognition technology . The country is known to use the technology for various purposes, such as CCTV surveillance .
The country has also created a similar system for detecting human emotions, mainly for identifying suspects.
Following in China's footsteps, India is also planning to create a facial recognition system for policing purposes. This will be done by developing a central repository of data that will be monitored.
