Bloomberg has reported that China-based telecom carriers must check SIM card buyer identity with biometric facial recognition tech.
The decision was taken in September by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to reduce the number of fraud schemes and safeguard against terrorism attempts. As such, telecom companies need to make sure the SIM cards and mobile plans are purchased from legal sources and are not resold.
The face-scan regulation is part of the Chinese government’s plan to facilitate population surveillance and reduce methods for staying anonymous online, Quartz suggests. As part of the initiative, when a person requests a new phone number, their photo is taken and matched to a government ID to keep track of the person’s activity.
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