As from Sunday people in China will be required to scan their faces when registering for new mobile phone services. The regulation was announced just two months ago and is being justified as protecting the ‘legitimate rights and interests of citizens in cyberspace’
Facial recognition is already used in excess in China as the state continues to increase mass surveillance of its people in what’s beginning to look like an Orwellian nightmare.
The new regulation for telecom operators was framed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as a way to “strengthen” this system and ensure that the government can identify all mobile phone users. Most Chinese internet users access the web via their phones.
