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Uber rolls out facial recognition in China
- d33 11y agoThis is a bit worrying... a blatantly law-ignoring organization (let's skip ethics for a while) whose actions are largely ignored by governments is rolling out surveillance-friendly technology. Is it just me...? Also, keep in mind their recent transparency report.
- josephpmay 11y agoThis is a common sense safety feature... make sure your employees are who they say they are. How is this violating anyone's privacy?
- shostack 11y agoExactly. If this is JUST used on drivers, I'm cool with it, and would welcome it because it means my ride is safer.
- awinter-py 11y agoEven if it's used on passengers -- your credit card is basically a form of ID. I don't use uber but I assume they don't support bitcoin / cash. You were already not private.
- objclxt 11y agoI actually found out a few days ago that in some countries Uber does accept cash (like Singapore - https://www.uber.com/cities/singapore/ https://www.uber.com/cities/singapore/). But it's still not anonymous, obviously, because your user profile is still tied to the ride.
- toomanybeersies 11y agoIsn't that one of the main safety features of uber? At least it is according to the drivers I talk to. You know who's getting in the car, so if they run (in places that support cash), or if they damage your car, you know who they are, it's a safety thing.
- xg15 11y agoEmployees? Wasn't Uber stressing they are independent contractors?
- mey 11y agoYou don't vet your contractors?
- grimmdude 11y agoI don't see any issue here as long as it's only used for Uber's employees/drivers; which seems to be the case currently.
- krapp 11y agoIt does seem a bit weird that a company founded on the principles of ignoring the law and distancing themselves from liability would even care about the identity of their drivers.
- eru 11y agoWhy? They are very interested in their drivers _not_ attacking the customers.
- alexbock 11y agoAm I only the one that thinks the animation on that page of a woman having her face scanned and turning her head looks like something from a modern retelling of 1984? I don't like the idea of app developers getting people used to submitting to facial scans; it seems inevitable that public acceptance of the concept will eventually be abused when someone decides that it's necessary to verify your identity before you access the internet in order to prevent terrorism. edit: Upon further reflection, I see no reason why my argument above couldn't be applied to fingerprint sensors on smartphones, which I personally use and don't have much of a problem with... I guess anything that gets even remotely close to the territory of mainstream video surveillance using phone cameras just creeps me out. I'm no longer sure of exactly where I stand on the facial scan issue.
- autotune 11y agoNo, and not having this may be a benefit for using other competitors like Lyft or the public transit system.
- pavel_lishin 11y agoThe facial-recognition scan is for the drivers, not for the riders.
- autotune 11y agoDrivers can still choose to avoid Uber and use other competitors as well as a result of this feature.
- pavel_lishin 11y agoSure, but if they're driving for one of those companies, that company already has a high definition photo of their face and lots of other information - I assume that drivers are subjected to considerably more scrutiny than passengers.
- marcoperaza 11y ago
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- devy 11y agoOne of the car sharing startup Turo (formally RelayRides) has had a step in the verification process to require you to take a selfie of your ID held at your face.[1] As a backup alternative, you have to upload the ID scan to them to manually verify you. I guess this is one step further. [1] https://support.turo.com/hc/en-us/articles/203991090-How-do-I-join- https://support.turo.com/hc/en-us/articles/203991090-How-do-...
- ropiku 11y agoThis looks like for on going verification rather than the initial one on sign up. The issue is drivers sharing accounts.
- educar 11y agoFor those complaining about surveillance. people in countries like china/india, don't trust cab drivers as easily as they do in the first world. If I can get into a cab in China and the app can tell me "yes, this is a driver that we have verified", this seems very useful and will make me feel safe(r).
- williswee 11y agoTotally agree. Super smart of Uber.
- goodplay 11y agoYes but at what cost? If people are fine with this, companies will start forcing people to scan faces for all sorts of reasons. Whether it's to enforce drm or for better targeted advertising ("It seems you're suffering from acne, here's 3 products that may help"), do you really want to live in a world like that?
- educar 11y agoI am taking it that you don't travel anywhere. Last I checked, every airport does a TSA check. People simply don't trust each other. One cannot simply remove this checks. Just ask around you, how many people will board a plane with no police check of fellow passengers?
- superuser2 11y agoYes, I want to live in a world where the identities of the drivers of cars I get into are known with certainty.
- dogma1138 11y agoAt the cost of not being mugged, beaten, stabbed, raped, or killed. It's not uncommon in many parts of the world for cab drivers to supplement their income by staging robberies or worse, they'll usually take a "short cut" which means they'll drive trough some alley in which some guy will come and rob both you and your driver, but in reality only you are being robbed. I've been to a few places in Asia where the policy was simple - you do not hail cabs. Cabs are handled by either the hotel or the office building you are in. You ask for the cab, they ask you where you are going and order it for you. When the cab arrives some one from reception will go check it, they check the driver's ID, and if everything is ok they'll write down the time, the cab number, and your details and let you board the cab. If you are not in a place that can hail a cab for you, you usually call the hotel and they'll either arrange it for you or tell you a safe place near by where you can get a reliable cab from. And as far as the driver checks go on more than one occasion the guy from the reception told us to wait for another cab because he "had a bad feeling" which was usually he either did not know the driver, the driver that showed up wasn't the one the cab company said would come, or something just smelled fishy to him.
- jarboot 11y agoI wonder how much China would pay for a database full of identities and their respective facial appearance data?
- krapp 11y agoThis new feature comes courtesy of a deal Uber struck with a Chinese facial recognition startup, Face++. It’s currently in beta, and will be part of the drivers’ app in China next month. Does China have to pay for something it already owns?
- tajen 11y agoThey might already have it. The NSA, on the other hand...
- toephu2 11y agoU.S. has this too, it's called the DMV.
- ryanlol 11y agoWhen did they get rid of IDs in China?
- m_antis89 11y agoSo, can't someone hold up a picture of the assumed driver's face, and continue duty?
- patrickg_zill 11y agoWhen I was traveling in a different Asian country, I would text someone the license plate of any cab I got into before driving off. Too many chances in big anonymous cities for people to get ripped off and for bad people to hide.