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You Will Soon Be Able To Pay Your Subway Fare With Your Face in China (scmp.com)

Posted by msmash on from the expanding-reach dept.

China has led the world in adoption of smartphone-based mobile payments to the point where the central bank had to remind merchants not to discriminate against cash. The next phase of development may be to pay with your face. South Morning China Post: In Shenzhen, the local subway operator is testing various advanced technologies backed by the ultra-fast 5G network, including facial-recognition ticketing. At the Futian station, instead of presenting a ticket or scanning a QR bar code on their smartphones, commuters can scan their faces on a tablet-sized screen mounted on the entrance gate and have the fare automatically deducted from their linked accounts. Currently in a trial mode, the facial-recognition ticketing service could in future help improve the efficiency of handling the up to 5 million rides per day on the city's subway network. Shenzhen Metro did not elaborate when it will roll out the facial payment service. The introduction of facial recognition-and-payment services to the public transit system marks another step by China toward integrating facial recognition and other artificial intelligence-based technology into everyday life in the world's most populous nation. Consumers can already pay for fried chicken at KFC in China with its "Smile to Pay" facial recognition system, first introduced at an outlet in Hangzhou in January 2017.

47 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. You can already pay in naturalia by Quakeulf · · Score: 1

    The world's oldest profession just became government legislation.

  2. Good climate... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

    Shenzhen is at 22N latitude -- fortunately, this will work less well in climates where people often wear hats, baklavas, and sunglasses at the same time and can't be arsed to take them off for a 5 min subway trip.

    1. Re:Good climate... by omnichad · · Score: 3, Funny

      Wearing baklavas gets messy - especially if they're made with honey.

    2. Re:Good climate... by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      Shenzhen is at 22N latitude -- fortunately, this will work less well in climates where people often wear hats, baklavas, and sunglasses at the same time and can't be arsed to take them off for a 5 min subway trip.

      Sub---way?

      Ok, so there aren't many of them in the US, but I am a bit horrified of this tech coming over here in general.

      I"m not a fan of all the cameras that are up, and not happy that facial recognition is already being introduced....for all purchases and transactions?

      Man, this could really lead to a bleak future bereft of what little privacy we still cling onto.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    3. Re:Good climate... by pgmrdlm · · Score: 1

      I use public transportation every day. There are camera's in every bus that I take. You can either pay directly on the bus, or through an app which is what I used.

      We may not be using facial recondition payment yet for public transportation, but it already is just as bad.

      --
      Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
    4. Re:Good climate... by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      I use public transportation every day. There are camera's in every bus that I take. You can either pay directly on the bus, or through an app which is what I used.

      We may not be using facial recondition payment yet for public transportation, but it already is just as bad.

      Hmm..yet another reason for me not to take public transportation....even if it were a viable resource where I live.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    5. Re:Good climate... by pgmrdlm · · Score: 1

      Well, if it wasn't for the fact that I had a retina detachment in my left eye. And my vision in it is still very blurry, even after having it re-attached. I would not be taking the public transportation either. I do not consider it safe for either myself or anyone else for me to drive until I regain more sight in that eye.

      But, now that I do take public transportation. I do not deal with traffic jams, my and others road rage, nor my GFs morning bitch mode when she gives me a ride to work. Cost's me a total of 95 dollars a month to go anywhere, anytime in the Cleveland area on public transportation. One time fee without worry of gas price fluctuation. Just saying.

      --
      Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
    6. Re:Good climate... by Joey+Vegetables · · Score: 1

      Anywhere the buses and trains go with sufficient frequency and reliability. Regrettably - and I'm in the Cleveland area also - that's a small and shrinking subset of the region. Efforts are underway to address this, but will likely fall far short of what is genuinely needed.

      --

      Nonaggression works!
    7. Re:Good climate... by pgmrdlm · · Score: 1

      Complete agreement with you on this. I have followed the saga of the funding(state/county) issues with RTA. There are many parts to the issue/problem, but no good solution yet. I am lucky. I can take the Metro bus's, which are all mostly new. And just one transfer.

      But, my GF is going for a major operation in 2 weeks and I was mapping out the bus for this. What a cluster, and it is at University main campus. I probably will just do the bus to work, then Lyft to the hospital and then home.

      --
      Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
  3. Only if you can still ride it. by alvinrod · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sure you can pay with your face, unless your social credit score is too low. Then it will probably just signal the authorities to come round you up and send you away. Eventually the camps will be done processing all of the Uyghurs and they'll need some new grist for the mill.

    1. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sure you can pay with your face, unless your social credit score is too low. Then it will probably just signal the authorities to come round you up and send you away.

      Then you can pay with all of your body parts.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by mnemotronic · · Score: 1

      In our business dealings, if somebody don't pay wit cash, dey end up paying wid something else, like der kneecaps. Second time dey don't pay, it ain't pretty. Der singing in da boys choir. Know what I mean? Der ain't no third time.

      --
      The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
    3. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by dryriver · · Score: 3, Interesting

      They don't have to send you anywhere - ALL of China is being transformed into an open air prison. The Chinese Communist Party exists first and foremost to OPPRESS its citizens. You don't have to do that in a labor camp - these commie-gays probably get the same kick out of just surveilling 1 Billion people in everything they do every day. Well done Apple & Co. You moving your manufacturing Dollars to China has trapped 1 Billion people inside one big fucking Panopticon.

      --
      Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
    4. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by eaglesrule · · Score: 2

      It's going to be interesting to see if we can actually manage to avoid inescapable tyranny, when the Chinese have already beaten us to it. With the way that leftists keep getting elected that actively seek to make gun ownership and free speech illegal, there's no way to be sure.

    5. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by mentil · · Score: 2

      Dictators tend to feel anxious that their close officials, or the evil group du jour, are going to betray/usurp them; this is the typical cause of purges.
      Now scale this up to a dictatorial government, that is afraid much LARGER groups (say, all the Maoists) are going to roll out the guillotines, and the oppression gets much larger in scope and time scale.

      Oppression is a side-effect of the #1 bureaucracy goal: continuity of the bureaucracy. Anything that threatens the CCP is considered an "existential threat" by them. The typical way to defeat these things is to have them implode due to power vacuum, although Thailand probably has a better model of having a non-violent coup every 20 years or so.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    6. Re: Only if you can still ride it. by AHuxley · · Score: 2

      AC only if your social credit is good. Once that gets too low, no passport, no flights, no rail. No passport, no international travel.
      Try a domestic holiday?
      No good hotels, fast rail in China will accept a low social credit score.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    7. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by irving47 · · Score: 1

      What's the difference? They've started denying travel to people with too low a score, anyway

      --
      I had a sucky sig.
    8. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by fafalone · · Score: 1

      And that bullshit by leftists pales in comparison to the far greater threat from the right; which is far more in favor of FISA court back intelligence agency mass surveillance having unchecked power, far more in favor of civil asset forfeiture, and completely against any consequence for police violating our constitutional rights. The last two are by far the worst, as they actually impact peoples day to day lives in much more severe way. I hate the left's position on gun rights and free speech (and sex crime due process, but the right is worse on due process for all other crime), but as a civil libertarian whose first voting priority is individual rights (but not corporate rights), I'd never vote for a Republican. If you want to avoid surveillance state prison, vote for the party with a few problematic positions over the party barreling full steam towards a police state.

    9. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Just wear a mask so you look like someone with a good credit score, e.g. one of those novelty Winnie the Pooh ones. Best of all you don't even have to pay for the ride!

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    10. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Who are these rightists who want greater surveillance? The FISA court was abused by the FBI in an attempt to rig the election for Hillary.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    11. Re: Only if you can still ride it. by ememisya · · Score: 1

      Do you have to smile to pay for the subway too?

    12. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by mysidia · · Score: 1

      What you have there is more DisInformation, FUD, and unfounded fears about China's social "credit". The credit Scores
        (that's plural, not one score), are actually penalizing People who are bad passengers and violating rules and courtesy while using the public transportation specifically with restriction on the use of public transportation services.

      This is not "Because you have wrongthink, you can't take the train to work tomorrow" -- Instead, this is, for example: Because you got on the train without a ticket recently and tried to sneak by, but got caught. Or you started a fight with another passenger, or loitered in front of the boarding gate repeatedly, or you were found smoking in a labelled no-smoking area at the train station --- You can become banned from the facility by this automated system.

      For "spreading fake news" about airport security, you can lose your ability to purchase tickets.

      China also had a social credit system for pet owners tried in Jinan: Pet owners that commit violations such as letting your animal cause public disturbances or run free without a leash lose points, and if you run out of points, then your dog gets impounded.

      This can happen in the US as well.... Dogs found without a leash or license get impounded; maybe in (SOME) cases the owner can reclaim by paying a fine -- but that's up to the authorities, and not always.
          The security personnel can ban you from Rail/Bus/Airport facilities for misbehavior. The social credit system with its various credit scores about different things works similarly.

    13. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Dictators tend to feel anxious that their close officials, or the evil group du jour, are going to betray/usurp them; this is the typical cause of purges.
      Now scale this up to a dictatorial government, that is afraid much LARGER groups (say, all the Maoists) are going to roll out the guillotines, and the oppression gets much larger in scope and time scale.

      Oppression is a side-effect of the #1 bureaucracy goal: continuity of the bureaucracy. Anything that threatens the CCP is considered an "existential threat" by them. The typical way to defeat these things is to have them implode due to power vacuum, although Thailand probably has a better model of having a non-violent coup every 20 years or so.

      WIth respect to dictatorships versus democracies, the governments aren't too different. In fact, there are more similarities between the two than you realize and it sort of all makes complete sense when you actually see who government actually works for.

      This is true as long as there is a ruling entity - a Dictator, a President, a Prime Minister, a Head, whatever.

      Rules for Rulers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
      Death and Dynasties - https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    14. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

      And that bullshit by leftists pales in comparison to the far greater threat from the right; which is far more in favor of FISA court back intelligence agency mass surveillance having unchecked power, far more in favor of civil asset forfeiture, and completely against any consequence for police violating our constitutional rights.

      You're going to brush aside the existential threat leftists pose to civil liberties in order to single out R's as the party never to vote for? Sure, seems legit. That aside there isn't much of the above that I disagree with. Let's look at the big picture, though.

      Leftists: Authoritarian would-be tyrants that seek the public to be too afraid to utter any opinion or humor that is not preapproved, lest that person's personal life, career, or business goes down in flames. Their purpose is to enforce conformity while preaching diversity, to stroke the flames of infighting with racism and bigotry, and to undermine social norms that are beneficial to a just and free society. The public is divided based on petty grievances both faked or imagined.

      Rightwing: Authoritarian would-be tyrants that seek to establish a robber barron society, where corporations and by extension the richest elite hold the reigns of power in society. Their purpose is to make war profiteering patriotic, to make being a wage-slave a badge of honor, and to betray the country's own best interest for the sake of global financial hegemony and the futile goal of extending the power of the petrodollar indefinitely. The public, or peasants if you will, are overly occupied with survival to offer an effective resistance, especially when the alternative seems equally horrible.

      Both sides work towards the same goal: a Chinese style authoritarian tyranny where the proletariat are to be unable to offer any resistance to exploitation and they are manipulated into compliance.

      You could argue that the right wing is worse. But then the validity of "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" comes into question as the power of technology advances. At this time the side that makes any kind of revolution impossible through disarmament and criminalizing speech gives me the most concern. At least with those rights, we have a chance.

    15. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by fafalone · · Score: 1

      I'm not brushing anything aside; if you look at my post history I'm always railing against the left too. But making the argument that the right is the worse of the two authoritarian parties is exactly what I'm doing; in voting for the left over the right, it's really choosing the lesser evil, not choosing a 'good' party. The left's attacks on speech are theoretical and unlikely to get very far in court; meanwhile, the right's establishment of a police state and allowing routine civil rights violations by police and other government agents, from murder to petty theft where they seize any cash they find you with, without even arresting you, is already our reality, is getting worse, and is enabled by the courts. That is the worse threat, and is by far more the domain of the right.

    16. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by fafalone · · Score: 1

      The right wants to punish a few people for whatever they think some agents did for Clinton or against Trump; not a one of them is seeking to reduce the scope of mass surveillance, limit FISA authority in general, or reduce the power of any agency. The right is far worse than the left when it comes to rallying around "national security" to enable mass surveillance and warrantless search and you damn well know it.

    17. Re:Only if you can still ride it. by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      WHO. Name names. You're not talking about right vs. left, this is nationalist vs. globalist, democratic vs. authoritarian.

      The FBI did indeed commit multiple felonies and colluded with the Clinton campaign. We have hard evidence, which you doubtless have seen unless you live in a cave or an echo chamber.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  4. Wut? by HangingChad · · Score: 1, Funny

    How can they do that when they all look alike?

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
    1. Re:Wut? by syrupdude · · Score: 1

      THis is what I expected.

    2. Re:Wut? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      One guy gets a bill for 5 million subway rides a day.

    3. Re:Wut? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      A face detector is simpler and cheaper than a face recognizer, so there's an unfair advantage right there.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  5. China Proudly Leads The Way To The New World Order by dryriver · · Score: 1

    The abominable Chinese Communist Party - who hate God so much that they are much much more than mere "Atheists" by the way - are giving a proud demonstration of what living under a "New World Order" would look like. Technology everywhere, always on, always identifying you and always working against you as a human being. We are fucking IDIOTS for buying anything manufactured in this God-hating country at all - every Dollar we send the Chinese Communist Party gets used against the people who have to live in China. China wants an Uber-Orwellian cashless society where even the tiniest transaction has to be linked to a person's identity, and we who buy electronic shit made there are FINANCING this madness. The Chinese government is so abominable that it is borderline Satanic - no sense in sugarcoating anything these control-freaks are after. Why can't we buy shit made in India, Vietnam or somewhere in Latin America instead?

    --
    Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
  6. Facial recognition, stock is up by rmdingler · · Score: 1

    Interestingly enough, human identification technology seems to be advancing favoring facial recognition versus the traditional fingerprint, iris, or other biometric identifier.

    Why? Facial characteristics are among the easiest to conceal (hats, surgery, scarves, facial hair, make up).

    We can only speculate, but it does seem like taking your picture without your permission is, er, socially acceptable.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:Facial recognition, stock is up by Kjella · · Score: 2

      You don't have to speculate a lot, fingerprint/iris etc. is point identification where the person wants to identify. With facial recognition you can people over time from camera to camera. If you got them positively identified at one point you can track both forwards and backwards. If you got a superzoom you can do it from a great distance. If you're the Chinese they can probably cross reference with cell phone towers, electronic payments etc. to narrow down the number of likely people from 1.4 billion to a few thousands. Like Facebook they'll probably build shadow profiles on all the unknown people, only better.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  7. Re:China Proudly Leads The Way To The New World Or by syrupdude · · Score: 1

    THis is not what I expected.

  8. Re:I knew by wolfheart111 · · Score: 1

    It would be in here somewhere.. lol

    --
    [($)]
  9. Re:China Proudly Leads The Way To The New World Or by enigma32 · · Score: 1

    It won't be obvious once the comments fill in some more... but I saw what you did here. Kudos. haha

  10. What if... by oneneo · · Score: 1

    ... my face is not in China?

    1. Re:What if... by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      China counts every face in and out. Every embassy worker, academic, tourist, NGO, sports fan.
      None of the long term, generational illegal immigration problems like in the USA result.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  11. Re: It would be nice if women could flash their ti by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 1

    Perhaps for men, a glans print should be used for identity verification.

  12. Re: It would be nice if women could flash their ti by mentil · · Score: 1

    Would be convenient for logging in to porn sites/Chatroulette/Tinder/etc.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  13. Re:China Proudly Leads The Way To The New World Or by AHuxley · · Score: 2

    The NSA and GCQH have the same systems to detect social changes in a person.
    They just don't tell the world about it.
    The West has an informal interview to see what a person is doing what they do.
    Should that fail uniformed police talk to a persons boss and work colleagues.
    Still not change to a persons political views?
    The interviews become criminal and very formal.
    Bank accounts stop working.
    Lawyers suggest better lawyers. But as the bank account is frozen...
    Finally the SAS is used without any comment when needed as its was in Ireland.
    The difference is China stops more of your everyday use of services to ensure a person having problems has more time to study more Communism.
    No hotels, no travel, no good housing, no loans until the person is a better citizen.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  14. Unless you fall afoul of the social credit system by Chas · · Score: 1

    Then you can't travel, can't rent a car. Can't go certain places. Can't leave the country.

    Basically you become a public services pariah.

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  15. Expensive by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    Then you can pay with all of your body parts.

    Well if it is expensive enough it could cost an arm and a leg.

  16. More intelectual idea theft from China by meglon · · Score: 1

    You've been able to pay down enough of the vig to delay making a payment on principle with a kneecap for as long as i can remember; there's a ton of "prior art" out there.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  17. Has noone seen the great cautionary by cdsparrow · · Score: 1

    tail 'Face Off'? This will never work!

  18. Able vs Required? by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

    I think the latter.