In some business scenarios, it is no secret to secretly collect the face information of customers entering the store by installing cameras with face recognition functions. The reporter's investigation found that although many face recognition technology companies said that they had stopped the business, there were also sales staff who introduced that there were such cameras for sale to help count passenger flow. Behind this, the chain of buying and selling face photos is also looming.
status quo
It is not difficult to find a set of 2000 yuan for the product
Enter "face recognition camera" and "store face system" in search engines or e-commerce platforms, and you will soon find multiple company pages that offer such products.
In a company's product content, the environmental factors required to install cameras are described
"Store face recognition, new retail system solutions, and the number of people and passenger flow statistics." A company advertises the product in its promotion page. The reporter contacted the company's customer service and said that he hoped to buy a camera that could analyze customers' faces and personal information, and his response was that the company was no longer involved in such business since last year.
The reporter has interviewed 6 companies with facial recognition products or systems, and has received similar answers. The person in charge of an intelligent system equipment company introduced that face recognition cameras are used more in the security field and the commercial field. The business field is mainly used to "count passenger flow", "analyze customers", "identify VIPs", etc., but "now we don't let this do this, anyway, we don't do this." Another tech company's customer service also refused, saying, "No, don't do this thing now." ”
Several business people who previously had this business admitted that they have now stopped providing face recognition cameras or related recognition analysis systems to the market. As for the specific time point of stopping such business, most of them said that it was "after the exposure of the 315 party in 2021." However, in the official website pages and product introductions of some companies, the "face recognition" product introduction can still be found.
At the same time, some companies are still selling cameras with face recognition functions, but their responses are only used to assist in counting passenger flow and will not collect too much customer information. "AI face recognition, accurate recognition rate of more than 99.99%, accurate recognition of face information..." On the official website of a technology company in Shenzhen, the advertisement occupied the main page. According to the page, the face recognition passenger flow statistics system can be applied to commercial complexes, libraries, communities and other scenarios. The reporter contacted the person in charge of the company, who said that the camera with face recognition function is part of the company's passenger flow statistics management system.
Face recognition products introduced on a company page
"The camera is 2 megapixels, supports face capture in complex environments, and supports up to 32 simultaneous face detection." The person in charge said that to complete the system, in addition to installing cameras in the appropriate location in the store, it also needs a cloud platform that can store data. "If you buy it from me, on average, each camera will be more than 2,000 yuan, and the construction cost will be out of your own hands."
Hidden trouble
Data can be self-managed Buying and selling is risky
So, what information can be obtained by purchasing a face recognition camera that assists passenger flow statistics? Is it only used for passenger flow statistics, there is no risk?
"It can be installed at the entrance of the store, or above and around the cash register, where you can photograph the customer's face." Introduced by the person in charge of a company in Shenzhen. However, when asked if it was possible to identify whether customers were "first-time in-store" and "occupation and spending habits", they appeared cautious. "Our cameras are different from the cameras installed in some real estate agency stores and car stores."
He said that the company's face recognition camera will block face photos in the background, and can only identify the number of people entering and leaving the store every day, gender, age information. "The data is stored on a cloud platform. If you want to use the data yourself, you can buy a storage platform separately, the data is in your hands, you manage and use it yourself. ”
A company displays faces and related attributes that can be seen in the background of the system
"Before, everyone did not shy away from doing customer face recognition and information analysis." The person in charge said that because it involves the face privacy of unfamiliar customers, the company will not do this business at this stage and has blocked the face recognition function. According to an industry insider, the face recognition shooting system used in some shopping malls or stores before was mainly to identify, collect and analyze customer information by shooting customer faces. Now, it has mainly become a "collision line" to count passenger flow, "such as auxiliary statistics system, drawing a line on the store floor." As long as there are customers entering the store, they can 'touch' the horizontal line, so the passenger flow statistics will be recorded..."
Although the relevant companies claim that the camera does not display face information in the background, in fact, as long as the customer enters the store, the installed camera can capture the facial information of each customer. Where the photographed face is stored and whether it will be desensitized is completely uncontrollable to the customer who is collected by the device without feeling. On the contrary, behind this, the gray market for buying and selling face information data has always been there.
In a chat group called "Data Label Sharing," someone sells photos of faces. "We specialize in AI face data collection, all of which are fixed shots." One seller said he had about 3,000 facial pictures of people in his hands, mostly left behind when collecting student data at colleges and universities, "if you want 20 yuan a person." The seller said that the face data they collected was better than the face data collected by other devices, "each person has 20 pictures, 5 videos, AI test such a full range of collection, much better." ”
An AI data company buys and sells the collected face data for 20 yuan a person
Such a face data transaction is not an isolated case. Previously, there were also media reports that on some online trading platforms, as long as you spend 2 yuan, you can buy thousands of face photos, while more than 5,000 face photos are priced at less than 10 yuan.
parlance
The installation of the camera must be clearly communicated
"There are many categories of cameras. Generally speaking, to install cameras in public places, they must be set up out of public safety and public interests. Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law and member of the Expert Committee of the China Consumer Association, said that article 26 of the Mainland's Personal Information Protection Law stipulates that the installation of image collection and personal identification equipment in public places should be necessary to maintain public safety, comply with relevant national regulations, and set up conspicuous prompt signs. Personal images and identification information collected may only be used for the purpose of maintaining public safety and shall not be used for other purposes, except where the individual's separate consent is obtained.
"If it's just to count the flow of people, or for other purposes or commercial purposes, I don't think I have the power to install cameras." Zhu Wei also introduced that article 5 of the Personal Information Protection Law stipulates that the handling of personal information shall follow the principles of legality, propriety, necessity and good faith, and personal information shall not be handled through misleading, fraudulent, coercion, etc. Therefore, the relevant parties must clearly inform consumers in a conspicuous place that the camera has been installed.
Zhu Wei believes that even if the camera of passenger flow statistics is filmed in the case of de-identification, it also violates the rights and interests of consumers to a certain extent. "Because functionally, all faces, expressions, etc., can be recorded and obtained. And what shopping malls and merchants do with these captured customer pictures is really as they say will not invade privacy, and it is impossible to control. He suggested that the installation of cameras in public places cannot be arbitrary, and the content captured cannot be used or analyzed illegally.
(Beijing Daily)