Beijing, December 14 news (reporter Niu Guyue) 7 stores, 22 camera equipment, 6 months to collect 430,000 customer face photos... Recently, Xiaopeng Automobile was fined 100,000 yuan for installing face recognition cameras in stores to collect customer face information.
According to the administrative penalty information published on the website of the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, Shanghai Xiaopeng Automobile Sales Service Co., Ltd. was fined 100,000 yuan by the Xuhui District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, and the type of illegal acts was "infringing on the personal dignity of consumers, infringing on consumers' personal freedom or infringing on consumers' rights to be protected according to law".
(Screenshot from the website of Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Supervision)
According to the administrative penalty decision, in 2019, xiaopeng Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., the business parent company of the party Shanghai Xiaopeng Automobile Sales Service Co., Ltd., purchased the customer flow monitoring project service from a third party. After the parties purchase face recognition camera equipment, they are installed in their stores to collect and upload consumers' facial recognition data, and after the algorithm is recognized and calculated, the customer flow statistics and passenger flow analysis of the stores are carried out, including the statistics of the number of people entering the store, the proportion of men and women, and the age analysis.
After investigation, Shanghai Xiaopeng Automobile Sales Service Co., Ltd. purchased a total of 22 camera equipment with face recognition functions, the model is F3, and the hardware and software procurement fees total 173822.77 yuan. The above-mentioned face recognition camera equipment is all installed in the stores of the parties concerned, involving 5 directly operated stores and 2 franchise stores, and 8 system accounts are opened, and from January 2021 to June 2021, the above-mentioned face recognition camera devices collect and upload 431623 face photos.
Xuhui District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau pointed out that Shanghai Xiaopeng Automobile Sales Service Co., Ltd. installed face recognition camera equipment in its 7 stores to collect consumer facial recognition data, "without the consent of consumers, nor explicitly or informed consumers of the purpose of collection and use." As of the time of the case, the parties concerned had dismantled the face recognition camera equipment in the above-mentioned stores, and the uploaded face photos had been deleted. The parties have no illegal gains.
The reporter contacted the official of Xiaopeng Automobile and submitted the interview request, as of the reporter's press release, the other party has not responded.
A "Xiaopeng Automobile Response" released by @Sina Auto's Weibo account at 14:49 on December 14 said that the incident was due to the relevant store "mistakenly purchasing and using the products of a third-party supplier (Yuluoke) that violated the relevant legal provisions", and Xiaopeng Automobile "completely obeyed" the administrative punishment and "deeply reflected". The reporter noted that as of the press release, @Xiaopeng Automobile's official Weibo and Xiaopeng Automobile's official WeChat public account did not issue the above response statement.
(Screenshot from @Sina Auto Weibo page)
"Face recognition" is a kind of biometric technology that is based on the identity of people's facial feature information. Previously, in order to avoid the face recognition system of the sales office, a house watcher in Jinan wore a helmet to enter the sales office, which triggered extensive public discussion about the abuse of face recognition technology. In March 2021, Minchuang Premium products were also investigated by the relevant departments for using cameras in stores that illegally collected customers' face information. During the "315" period, CCTV also exposed the illegal collection of consumer face data by Kohler, BMW and other stores by installing cameras and illegally collecting consumer face data without consumer awareness. Many experts and scholars in the industry have called for strengthening the governance of the abuse of face recognition technology. On August 1, 2021, the Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Civil Cases Involving the Use of Face Recognition Technology to Handle Personal Information came into effect, and Article 2 clearly states that the use of face recognition technology for face verification, identification or analysis in business premises such as hotels, shopping malls, banks, stations, airports, stadiums, entertainment venues, and other business premises and public places in violation of laws and administrative regulations is an act of infringing on the personality rights and interests of natural persons.
According to public information, Xiaopeng Automobile was officially established in 2015, initiated by He Xiaopeng, Xia Heng, He Tao and others, and the company is positioned as a designer and manufacturer of intelligent electric vehicles, providing intelligent electric vehicles for Chinese consumers through the innovation of automatic driving, intelligent interconnection and core automobile systems. According to the latest financial report released by Xiaopeng Motors, in the third quarter of 2021, the total revenue of Xiaopeng Motors was 5.72 billion yuan, the net loss was 1.59 billion yuan, and the net loss expanded by 38.8% year-on-year and 33.5% month-on-month. Xiaopeng Motors was listed on the main boards of the New York Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in August 2020 and July 2021 respectively. On December 14, Xiaopeng Motors-W (09868) closed at HK$176.2 per share, down 3.35%, and on December 13, EST, XPEV closed at $45.35 per share, down 3.16%.