Shanghai Metro’s “Longde Road Station” has sparked controversy as the restroom is located outside the gates, requiring passengers to undergo facial recognition before being able to exit, raising concerns about potential leakage of personal sensitive information.
According to reports from Chinese media on May 20th, a woman surnamed Zhang from Shanghai shared on social media that when she was transferring from Line 13 to Line 11 at Longde Road Station, she was asked to undergo facial recognition registration in order to exit the station to use the restroom.
Ms. Zhang expressed her confusion and unease about the whole process, stating, “I have to scan my face to exit the gate machine to use the restroom. The staff said I have to scan my face again when I come back, so it cancels out each time I enter and exit. I think this is a major concern, facial recognition should not be used in such places.”
The metro company responded that this measure is to avoid double charging and emphasized that the data will not be stored or used for other purposes. However, the public questioned the necessity of scanning faces just to use the restroom. Some netizens even joked, “What if a successful face scan makes people disappear after using the restroom?”
With the stringent stability maintenance measures imposed by the Chinese Communist Party and widespread surveillance cameras, more and more people are opposing the use of facial recognition technology.
Professor and doctoral supervisor at Tsinghua University Law School, Lao Dongyan, has previously written about facial recognition, stating that it involves the collection of important biological data of individuals, and organizations or institutions must prove the legality of such practices before collecting. She questioned the unlimited investment in security by the authorities, wondering who they are trying to prevent and protect.
When facial recognition technology was applied in Beijing’s metro for passenger classification security checks a few years ago, Lao Dongyan’s initial reaction was, “This is crazy!”