China is a country within Asia, where things work slightly different than in Europe. In terms of technology, China is far above the Netherlands. China is currently the world leader in the field of artificial intelligence. This is mainly due to the amount of data required to fill systems for the implementation of technology. Technology innovation is very expensive, but the Chinese government is providing financial support to technology companies in order to make the country safer. In addition, the Chinese government places high importance on the safety of the Chinese citizens. There are around 200 million surveillance cameras in China and, if it is up to the government, the number of cameras must increase drastically by 2020. At the same time, China is setting up a national database on facial recognition (Chan, 2019).
Due to a lack of privacy legislation, the government, police and technological businesses make optimal use of the technology of facial recognition in order to keep an eye on their citizens. As a result, citizens are spied on without giving their permission to the government. With this technology, the government can capture criminals, trace refugees and find missing children for example.
Almost every citizen is registered in the Chinese database, which amounts to approximately 1.4 billion people (Lentino, 2019). In contrast to the negative issues of facial recognition, such as privacy violation, facial recognition can also be utilized for positive purposes. In Shanghai, this technology is already being used to access the campus. Some universities have the technology of facial recognition stored in their own database in order to open the gates of the campus. Students simply have to face the camera directly while standing in front of the gates. The faces of the students are already scanned within three seconds, which results in entry to the campus. Many students are in favor of this method, because it ensures much faster access to the campus than having to scan their students cards, which they could lose by accident as well.
Let’s face it: We will be seeing more and more of it in the not too distant future.
Chan, T.F. (2019). 22 angstaanjagende foto’s van hoe China gezichtsherkenning gebruikt om burgers in de gaten te houden. Retrieved from: https://www.businessinsider.nl/china-gezichtsherkenning-burgers-camera/.
Lentino, A. (2019). This Chinese facial recognition start-up can identify a person in seconds. Retrieved from: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/16/this-chinese-facial-recognition-start-up-can-id-a-person-in-seconds.html.
Hi Wendy,
Thank you for the nice read. I think on one side it is nice that facial recognition has so many use cases mentioned in your blog – at some places you can even pay at a KFC. It’s amazing that the government can capture criminals, trace refugees and find missing children – which is amazing. So naturally, especially people in Western societies are skeptic about what the Chinese government does with all the information. Do you know if there are any known cases where the Chinese government misused their power in terms of this technology. It’s nice to shed light on both ends of the spectrum, so I would be interested to hear more about that as well!