Chinese government has arrested hackers it says breached OPM database (Washington Post)
Beijing has repeatedly insisted that the government played no role in the intrusions, which compromised sensitive personal, financial and biometric data of the employees, and data on their families.
Chinese Regulators Put Brakes on Facial-Recognition for Payment (PYMNTS.com)
Currently, in China, a customer must physically appear at a bank to have his or her identity verified by an employee before he or she can open an account. There is a push in the industry, the report points out, for facial-recognition software to replace the need for a customer’s physical presence to conduct banking business.
China seems to be drawing a regulatory distinction between what ID requirements should be in place in order to open a bank account versus what ID requirements banks can use for authenticating transactions.
Current facial recognition technology can do more than guess your age, as businesses are finding out (Global Times)
Concluding quote:
Besides traditional application for a secure entry or time clock system, facial recognition technology can be used in other fields such as remote identification.
The market for facial recognition technology is ultimately decided by the population. China has an immense population, which makes it a potentially huge market, according to the report from Bosi Data Research Center.
“But customers should know that multimodal biometric identification is much safer than single biometric identification, especially when the technology is used in finance,” Lü said. “We can’t ensure the facial recognition technology can be 100 percent accurate, and it’s safer if you can use other biometric identification together.”
There’s more good information at the link.
Alibaba teams up with Huawei to let Alipay Wallet users pay with just their fingerprint (TNW)
[…]Alibaba has announced a way to make its payments service Alipay even more secure on a smartphone — with the introduction of fingerprinting technology in a deal that it inked with smartphone manufacturer Huawei.
China Biometrics Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2018 (Research and Markets)
“China Biometrics Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2018”, identifies that fingerprint identification market in China is anticipated to grow at the CAGR of around 38%, reaching up by six folds revenue by the end of 2018. Anhui, Shandong and Shanghai are the leading provinces of eastern region, generating highest revenue in biometrics market when compared with other regions in the country. One of the other large biometric projects is e-passports, which is primarily to be implemented in Shaanxi province in northern region and would act as the main growth driver for biometrics market in the next five years. The major players of biometrics industry in China are Zk Technology, Ingersoll Rand, Rosslare Security, Zks Group and Suprema Inc.
It doesn’t take a Ph.D. to read the same list of people’s names over and over again. So why do we make them do it?
Facial-recognition use grows as accuracy rises, cost declines (China Daily)
Wei Xiaoyong, an associate professor at Sichuan University, used to worry about taking roll call for his class of 100 students.
“It is time-consuming. But students who attend classes every day say it is unfair if I do not do it.”
Wei eventually found the solution – a face recognition system.
With the system, all he has to do is to use an ordinary pocket camera to take a picture of the class. Wei then uploads the picture and the computer will automatically find out who showed up for class.
Wei has not noted a single absence since he started using the system.
China Exit-Entry law up (Tempo – Philippines)
Key provisions of the law include requiring residence permits for foreigners residing in China, issuing a “catalog” for foreign workers, putting a cap on the extension of visas, creation of national database for exit and entry information, collection of biometric data of foreigners, and the introduction of “Green Cards.”