Study On The Improvement Of China's Privacy Protection In Applying Facial Recognition Technology

The intelligent and convenient facial recognition technology plays an important role in building smart cities,ensuring social security,and boosting the business.With the advent of the age of intelligence and the fast growth of digital economy,the application of facial recognition technology will be expanded as well.While bringing significant social and economic benefits,there have also been more and more cases and controversies arising in the application of facial recognition technology.In 2019 alone,for example,the Swedish Data Protection Authority imposed a fine of almost 200,000 kronor on a school that trialed this technology to monitor daily attendance of students;Four US cities banned their government agencies from using facial recognition technology;Facebook faced a class-action privacy lawsuit against its use of facial recognition technology which violated users' privacy;A zoo in China was sued for forcibly collecting consumers' ace information,which became the first civil case on facial recognition in China;The AI-powered face-swapping app Zao was investigated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology over the privacy issue and requested for a reform in compliance with certain laws and standards.The frequent occurrence of such cases has sparked the society's concerns over the legal issues,privacy protection in particular,related to this technology.Facial recognition technology can recognize individual's identity by processing their facial image,and face information should be categorized as sensitive biometric information closely related to individual privacy which needs special protection.Any irregular use of this new technology may lead to the leakage of privacy,so the key to protecting privacy in the application of this technology is to strengthen the protection of face information.However,in China now,there aren' any laws or regulations specifically on protecting face information or biometric information.Although there are still existing laws such as the Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China in which personal biometric information is classified as one type of personal information and the "lawful,justifiable and necessary" principles should be followed when collecting and using such personal information by announcing rules for collection and use and expressly notifying the purpose,method and scope of such collection and use,and the consent of the person whose personal information is to be collected should be obtained as well.Nevertheless,the provisions of such existing laws aren't systematized,and the principles proposed are incomplete and not elaborated.Such blurred standards are not easy to implement in practice,and may ultimately become a mere formality.Besides,China's current legal regulations on the right to privacy are scarce and broad without concrete contents,making it difficult to address the privacy protection issues brought by the application of this new technology.The insufficiency in legislation has,to a large extent,led to the inefficiency in law enforcement and difficulties in safeguarding individuals'legitimate rights.For instance,currently in the application of facial recognition technology,quite a few users' face information has been collected without prior notice to users or their consent,some entities excessively collect such information under unnecessary circumstances,and such information has been stolen or maliciously leaked due to inadequate technical measures,however,the entities involved are not subject to strict supervision and punishment and the rights and interests of data subjects are not well maintained because of the current imperfect relief and law enforcement mechanisms now.In a word,privacy protection is in a difficult situation.This thesis will therefore adopt a literature-based,comparative and case-analyzing methodology to analyze the current status of privacy protection legislation and law application related to the use of facial recognition technology in China,draw lessons from EU and America in terms of their regulatory modes and practices in this respect to strike a balance between individual right protection and data flow,learn the prudent attitude and high degree of privacy protection awareness from EU and American legislators,on the basis of which this thesis will provide suggestions for China to improve,with a focus on privacy protection,its legislation and regulation on the application of facial recognition technology as well as protective system for data subjects to safeguard their rights,and to explore China's own road of privacy and personal information protection that applies both theoretically and practically and conforms to China's national conditions,which is also the innovation of this thesis.This thesis emphasizes on the improvement of China's privacy protection efforts in applying facial recognition technology,and suggests that China publish the Personal Information Protection Law,with privacy protection philosophy at a core,distinguishing between general personal information and sensitive personal information such as face information,clarifying the specific principles guiding the entire treatment process of personal information,making clear the legal obligations that information controllers should abide by and the possible adverse consequences they may encounter if such mandatory rules are violated,strengthening law enforcement by introducing a stricter punishment mechanism and setting up a special personal data protection committee,and empowering individuals with more information-related rights and a better relief mechanism so that these data subjects can stand in a more advantageous position and protect their personal information and privacy from infringement.Apart from external regulation,it is also necessary for data controllers to improve self-discipline and enhance internal governance.In conclusion,with the speedy development of science and technology,the value of human faces will be more developed and utilized in different scenarios where facial recognition technology is applied and the protection forms and mechanisms in existing laws and regulations related to personal information and privacy protection will be largely challenged and therefore need improvement.It is hoped that this thesis,in a rational and prudent attitude towards the arrival of the "face era",can provide reference for addressing the privacy protection difficulties brought by the application of facial recognition technology and enable its healthy development in compliance with better laws,regulations and mechanism in China.