China Now Requires Facial Scans for Buying a New SIM Card

China is taking its widespread use of facial recognition engineering a pace further with its new dominion, which went into upshot from Dec ane (i.e. Sunday). The dominion requires users ownership a new SIM bill of fare or data connectedness to submit to mandatory facial recognition scans equally function of China's ongoing cybersecurity and anti-terrorism campaign.

China's Ministry building of Industry and Information technology first issued the guidelines for this rule back in September. Information technology outlined that telecom operators are required to deploy "bogus intelligence and other technical methods" to friction match the identity of an individual before the SIM card is awarded to them. And as we reported before, the regime has justified its efforts by asserting that information technology'south doing and then to "safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of citizens in cyberspace."

Netizens already had to present their identity card or passport, forth with a photograph, while joining a mobile network. However, these users are now required to submit to a mandatory facial scan to secure a new phone number or Internet connexion. Telecom operators should use this facial scan to match the identity of the person to their identity documents. This is a massive step in forcing users to give up their online anonymity.

Telecom operators had until December 1 to begin upgrading their centers with the facial recognition engineering science. And well, reports suggest that a few take already been taking a facial scan for new customers since last yr. We will but see the technology expand to more than regions in China by the finish of 2019.

While telcos accept accepted the regime'due south rule without much pushback, netizens and critics run into it as another step toward building a dystopian surveillance state. Yet, the regime defends itself asserting that the new rule volition help curb identity theft, phone scams, and reselling of SIM cards. What do you call back? Should facial scans by mandatory for buying a SIM menu? Share your stance in the comments below.