<https://www.jurist.org/news/2021/08/china-supreme-court-issues-regulations-against-misuse-of-facial-recognition-technology/>
The Supreme People’s Court of China issued regulations Wednesday for use of
facial recognition technology by private businesses. The guidelines require
private businesses to receive consent from customers before collecting and
processing their facial information.
Under the new regulations, individuals have the right to reject the use of
facial recognition technology for identity verification. They must be offered a
reasonable alternative form of access to the building or service.
The Supreme Court’s regulations treat violation of the law as a personal rights
infringement and enable the aggrieved individual to file a claim for
compensation. The regulations also state that businesses must notify customers
with a specific clause to obtain explicit and “independent” consent before
carrying out a scan. Hence, they cannot stow away their use of facial
recognition in the general terms of use or through bundled consent, a method of
obtaining consent for multiple requests with a single swipe.
The regulations cover civil disputes involving private players and the Chinese
government. The government’s nationwide surveillance system, which has
widespread ramifications on civil liberties, remains outside the regulations’
purview for public security reasons. There is also an exception for services
that cannot function without facial recognition information.
The first facial recognition lawsuit in China was brought in 2019 in a court of
Hangzhou by a law professor, Guo Bing, who sued the Hangzhou Safari Park. Bing
alleged Hangzhou Safari Park refused entry to visitors who did not submit to
the facial recognition and that it had not taken adequate precautions to
protect visitors’ biometric information. Earlier this year, the Hangzhou court
ruled in favor of Bing. However, its decision was based on a breach of contract
and not the legality of data use in facial recognition.
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