Smart security move or overbearing effort to continue building one of the world’s most comprehensive surveillance programs?
Picture a world in which the baseline requirement for a new smartphone is a facial recognition test. You needn’t imagine it — in China, beginning December 1, that’s the scrutiny to which the country’s over 850 million internet users will be subject, without exception. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in a late September statement that the rule, which will also prevent people from exchanging their mobile numbers, was necessitated by an uptick in phone and internet fraud. Furthermore, the ministry pledged that it would help to “increase supervision and inspection” and “strengthen assessment accountability” while “supervis[ing] the implementation of work” and the “real-name registration management of telephone users.”
Full story at VentureBeat.
