Beijing (AFP)
The city of Beijing will install facial recognition devices to access the subway of the Chinese capital, with a "white list" facilitating the passage of non-suspect travelers, reported Wednesday the official press.
At rush hour, access to the docks can take long minutes in the Beijing metro, all stations are equipped with detection gantry where passage is required.
To streamline passenger access, the urban network will install face-recognition cameras that will detect the faces of travelers and allow them to be divided into different access channels, said the director of the Metro Traffic Management Center, Zhan Minghui.
This project is equivalent to setting up a "passenger credit system" in which travelers on a "white list" will benefit from lighter controls, said the Beijing Youth Daily.
On the other hand, those who are subject to an "abnormal reaction" will be entitled to increased control.
Mr. Zhan did not specify the criteria by which the cameras would sort through the passengers.
China has begun in recent years to put in place various systems of "social credit" that give points to "good" citizens but may prevent others from taking the train, the plane, or making a reservation. 'hotel.
The Beijing Metro announced last May that it had begun to take points away from travelers who eat inside the trains.
Facial recognition is also spreading rapidly in the country, from access to sports clubs to police surveillance.
In an April article, The New York Times reported that Beijing used facial recognition cameras for "racial profiling" to monitor Uyghurs, a Muslim population in the north-west of the country.
The Beijing Metro, a city of more than 20 million inhabitants, provides no less than 12 million trips each day. They should reach 17 million by 2022.
© 2019 AFP