It is now possible to check in automatically at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport using facial recognition technology, part of an ambitious rollout of facial recognition systems in China that has raised privacy concerns as Beijing pushes to become a global leader in the field.
The Shanghai airport has unveiled self-service kiosks for flight and baggage check-in, security clearance and boarding powered by facial recognition technology, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said.
Similar efforts are underway at airports in Beijing and Nanyang, it said.
FULLY AUTOMATED
Many airports in China already use facial recognition to help speed security checks, but Shanghai’s system, which debuted on Monday, is being billed as the first to be fully automated.
“It is the first time in China to achieve self-service for the whole check-in process,” said Zhang Zheng (張征), general manager of the ground services department for Spring Airlines, the first airline to adopt the system at the airport.
Currently, only Chinese identity card holders can use the technology.
Spring Airlines on Tuesday said that passengers had embraced automated check-in, with 87 percent of 5,017 people who took Spring flights on Monday using the self-service kiosks, which can cut down check-in times to less than a minute and a half.
MANY APPLICATIONS
Across China, facial recognition is finding its way into daily life. Police have used facial recognition systems to identify people of interest in crowds and to detain jaywalkers, and are working to develop an integrated national system of surveillance camera data.
Chinese media are filled with reports of ever-expanding applications: A KFC outlet in Hangzhou, near Shanghai, where it is possible to pay using facial recognition technology; a school that uses facial recognition cameras to monitor students’ reactions in class; and hundreds of ATMs in Macau equipped with facial recognition devices to curb money laundering.
‘SOCIAL CONTROL’
However, the increased convenience might come at a cost in a nation with few rules on how the government can use biometric data.
“Authorities are using biometric and artificial intelligence to record and track people for social control purposes,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) senior China researcher Maya Wang (王松蓮) said. “We are concerned about the increasing integration and use of facial recognition technologies throughout the country because it provides more and more data points for the authorities to track people.”
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