Experts Warn of Risks in the Spread of Facial-Recognition Systems in China

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the deployment of facial-recognition systems in China. Many experts express concerns about their use due to the risks of data leaks, according to South China Morning Post.

Mass deployment of citizen-tracking systems in China began long before the pandemic. As the Financial Times notes, citing a government document, by 2020 the network of video surveillance was to have fully covered the country.

The South China Morning Post reports that the pandemic has become another driver for deploying such systems. In many Chinese regions, facial-recognition systems are already being paired with temperature screening. It is expected that this will help prevent the spread of diseases.

At the same time, some worry that local residents have little ability to monitor the deployment of such systems, and that the data could end up online.

According to last year’s study by Comparitech, China is among the worst countries for biometric data protection.

The publication notes that such data are sold online at very cheap prices. In 2020, after updates to facial-recognition systems, images of people wearing masks were also traded online.

Back in March 2020, the Chinese company Hanwang said that its recognition algorithm had been improved to identify masked faces with 95% accuracy.

One of the main causes of facial-recognition data leaks is inadequate security measures, the publication notes.

Given the widespread deployment of such systems across many spheres of life in China, reducing leak risks requires heightened attention to this issue from technical specialists, according to Viktor Gevers, cybersecurity expert at the GDI Foundation.

The rollout of facial recognition in China is unlikely to slow, with the state itself the largest customer for such systems in the country, the publication notes.

“Data is the new oil. They are needed by the Chinese government for governance,” said Gevers.

As reported, since the start of the pandemic authorities in various countries have increasingly deployed various systems of tracking and identifying citizens under the pretext of fighting the coronavirus.

Experts say that the pandemic has acted as a catalyst for the development of facial-recognition technologies.

For details on how this is playing out in China, Russia and other countries, read ForkLog’s exclusive.

Security before freedom? How governments are deploying mass surveillance tools under the pretext of the coronavirus

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