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China Approves Facial Recognition for Surveillance

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the try-to-get-my-good-side dept.

user24 writes "Several sources are reporting that China has approved a facial recognition system to be used for ID purposes in surveillance and security. From the article: 'The system, approved by the Ministry of Public Security, is expected to be used at airports, customs entrances, banks, post offices, residential areas and other public places in the near future [...] 'It has a superior advantage compared with fingerprint identification because the country doesn't have a fingerprint database for the general public,' [...] However, the country's ID cards do feature the person's photograph, which could facilitate the creation of a facial database, said Su Guangda.'"

5 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Double standard idealism by merc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When China does it... it's communism.

    When a western country does it, it's for homeland security.

    --
    It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
    1. Re:Double standard idealism by meringuoid · · Score: 3, Insightful
      When China does it... it's communism. When a western country does it, it's for homeland security.

      Cf. the differences between

      terrorist and freedom fighter
      heretic and prophet
      gangster and king
      treasonous rebel and founding father

      "When I say a word, it means what I want it to mean." -- Humpty Dumpty

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  2. Hmm. Anyone want to do the sums on this? by meringuoid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Let's say that they deploy this thing in only one city. It sees, shall we say, ten million faces a day.

    Each face has to be compared against the database. The database of the Chinese population, because you can't assume that everyone stays in the same city all the time. One point two billion people.

    I make that twelve quadrillion comparisons that will have to be made each day by this system. This thing's going to have to make the Earth Simulator look like an abacus...

    --
    Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
    1. Re:Hmm. Anyone want to do the sums on this? by slavemowgli · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah... because heaven forbid that we use something better than linear searching to test for matches. I don't really know the details of how face recognition works, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't use a tree-like structure to do only O(log n) comparisons to find a specific person.

      Besides, the argument that it won't be feasible on a technical level/too expensive/too complicated is a bit naive, too. The same thing could said about China's "great firewall" (and probably has been said about it prior to its being built), but somehow, it didn't keep them from implementing that one, either.

      --
      quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
  3. What? by FatSean · · Score: 2, Insightful

    [i]The difference is that if you actually want to go out there and make change; you are allowed to do it in the west. In countries such as the US, you can camp outside the President's house and protest without being shot or imprisoned indefinetly. You may not make a difference, but you are allowed to try.[/i]

    Liar. They couldn't keep it up in Crawford, Texass. Several laws were passed to prevent this. And for damn sure no protestors are allowed to camp out infront of thwe whitehouse! Hell, they took down a guy who just happened to stand in front with a briefcase for too long.

    Womens rights took decades, and some feel they still not equivelant. Do you suggest we must simply accept invasive government surveilance with no paper trail or accountability for 50 years until we ram a 'better way' through all the red tape?

    --
    Blar.