CCTV, Beijing, March 4 (Reporter Niu Guyue) Recently, the "largest privacy lawsuit settlement in history" has finally been reached. The largest photo-sharing site Facebook will compensate its 1.6 million users with a total of US$650 million. And all of this is caused by the abuse of " face recognition " technology by "Facebook".
According to the Associated Press, on February 26 local time, a US federal judge approved a class action settlement agreement against Facebook. This class-action lawsuit was initiated in Illinois in 2015. Facebook was accused of collecting and storing digital scans of users’ faces and other biological information through “face recognition” without the user’s permission. In the end, Facebook paid a price of $650 million for this.
"Convenience" and "abuse" are often separated by a wall. China University of Political Science and Law Associate Professor Fan Shiqian told a reporter from Yangguang.com that first of all, it should be clear that "technology itself is neutral". The current application of face recognition technology in all aspects of society All have greatly facilitated the production and life of human beings. Everyone's concerns about face recognition technology mainly stem from the abuse of technology and the risk of personal information being illegally collected and used. Fan Shiqian pointed out that "this requires legally strengthening the protection of personal information."
"Facebook" suffered a lawsuit because of "face"
In 2010, Facebook launched a new feature called "tag suggestion". According to this function, as long as the user uploads a photo, the system will use face recognition technology to circle the person in the photo. It is recommended that the user mark who it is and store this information in its own database. But it is worth noting that all this has not been notified to the user, and this feature is set to "default activation".
In response to Facebook’s move, in 2015, three citizens filed a lawsuit in the court separately, accusing Facebook of collecting and storing biometric data without clear notification, no written consent from users, and no instructions on the storage of data the term.According to media reports, Facebook has been trying to suspend the lawsuit during the six-year trial, but the reasons for its defense were rejected by the judge. In September 2019, Facebook was forced to set the face recognition function to be turned off by default. According to reports, about 6.9 million Illinois Facebook users were included in the settlement. As of November of that year, only about 1.6 million users had submitted a claim form.
According to media reports, in January 2021, Facebook finally agreed to pay a settlement of US$550 million. However, the federal government believes that the punishment is not enough and adds another $100 million. On February 26, 2021 local time, this lawsuit, which lasted for nearly six years, finally came to fruition. A federal judge approved the settlement agreement. Facebook will pay these users US$650 million (approximately 4.2 billion yuan). After deducting US$97.5 million in attorney’s fees and nearly US$915,000 in litigation expenses, the three plaintiff representatives will each receive 5000 US dollars, everyone else will receive at least US$345 in compensation. In addition to paying fines and turning off face recognition, the settlement agreement also requires Facebook to delete existing face templates.
United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge James Donato (James Donato) said in the ruling that this is one of the largest privacy settlement agreements in history and a "milestone" result. "In general, this settlement agreement is a major victory for consumers in the highly competitive digital privacy field." Donato wrote.
Facebook said in a statement, “We are very happy to reach this settlement, and now the problem is finally resolved. This is in the best interests of our community and shareholders.”
"It's not just this time. In August 2020, Facebook was sued in a California court for the application of "face recognition" technology, accused of collecting and storing biometric data of more than 100 million Instagram users.
At 4 pm Eastern time on March 2, Facebook stock price was $259, a drop of 2.23%.
The face is not a "face", has it become a privacy "postcard"?
Everyone is no stranger to the "face recognition" technology involved in the settlement of the Facebook privacy lawsuit.In recent years, "face recognition" technology has achieved more and more widespread applications in people's daily lives. The screen of the mobile phone can be unlocked by the face, and you can even pay by "swiping your face" when shopping. You no longer need a paper ticket when taking the high-speed rail, you can directly "swipe your face" into the station... However, face recognition technology is useful in diverse landing scenes. While people bring convenience services, they also cause the risk of personal privacy leakage due to "abuse" in certain scenarios.
According to public information, "face recognition" is a biometric technology that recognizes people's facial features. Earlier, in order to avoid the face recognition system in the sales office, a house inspector in Jinan wore a helmet to enter the sales office and caused widespread concern. What's more, according to consumers, public toilets in some places even need to "brush their face" to pick up paper. Industry insiders pointed out that in some scenarios, face recognition has not become a technology to serve consumers, but instead has become a tool for businesses to obtain personal information and precision marketing.
"As long as human face information is stored, there is a risk of information leakage." Independent telecommunications analyst Fu Liang said. After the face information is collected "borderlessly" through face recognition technology, whether it is illegally used, sold or leaked, it will undoubtedly seriously infringe on personal privacy. According to media reports, in recent years, in many cases of embezzlement of citizens’ personal information cracked by the police in many places, there are many cases in which illegally obtained citizen photos were deceived through the "AI face swap technology" through the face verification mechanism to provide criminal gangs with illicit services. . What's more, massive amounts of facial information have been packaged and sold through e-commerce platforms by criminals at low prices. The stolen facial information will be used for illegal and criminal activities such as false registrations and telecommunications network fraud. On February 26, 2021, the Ministry of Public Security held a press conference. The spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Security Jia Junqiang said that in 2020, public security agencies across the country will investigate more than 3,100 criminal cases of infringement of citizens’ personal information. Among them, 22 cases of theft and trafficking of facial data have been solved. At the beginning, 60 suspects were arrested.
He Yanzhe, deputy director of the Evaluation Laboratory of the Trust Security Center of the China Electronics Standardization Institute, once said that many of the facial information sold in the online black market are not simply “face photos”, but include ID numbers, bank card numbers, and Citizen's personal identification information such as mobile phone number. If the facial information matches other identity information or whereabouts information,It may be used by criminals to engage in criminal activities.
Fu Liang said that, from a technical perspective, the "face recognition" technology should be "unnecessarily not used, and not stored unless it is necessary." If you must collect the user's face information, try to delete the collected face information in time after completing the comparison function of the face information. "No storage" can greatly reduce the risk of face information leakage. In addition, by means of "living body recognition", users are required to make specified actions according to instructions to complete instant comparison of personal information, which can also reduce the risk of information leakage caused by face recognition.
Expert: The boundary of face recognition depends on the law
Associate Professor Fan Shiqian of China University of Political Science and Law pointed out that the face recognition technology should be treated with an objective and neutral attitude. First of all, it should be clear that "technology itself is neutral". Overall progress is a great impetus. The society’s concern about face recognition technology is mainly about the misuse of technology and the illegal collection and use of personal information caused by it. Fan Shiqian said that the boundary of face recognition depends on the law. “As long as we can abide by the law and follow the principles of lawfulness, reasonableness, and necessity to collect and use personal information, the risks caused by face recognition can be resolved.”
in In the high-profile “face recognition first case” in 2020, the plaintiff Zhejiang Sci-Tech University Associate Professor Guo Bing “challenges” the requirement of “brushing face” to enter the park in Hangzhou Wildlife World, and will Hangzhou Wildlife went to court. In November 2020, the first instance of the case was publicly pronounced-in the case of Hangzhou citizen Guo Bing v. Hangzhou Wildlife World, the court ruled that Hangzhou Wildlife World should compensate Guo Bing for the loss of contract interests and transportation expenses, and delete the documents submitted when he applied for the annual fingerprint card. Facial feature information including photos.
The court held that the focus of the dispute in this case was the evaluation and standardization of business operators' handling of consumer personal information, especially personal biometric information such as fingerprints and faces. The court stated that although my country's law does not prohibit the collection and use of personal information in the consumer field, it emphasizes the supervision and management of personal information processing.
In recent years,At the legal level, China has made specific regulations for the collection and storage of biometric information, delineating the boundaries for the collection and use of biometric information such as human faces.
For example, the draft personal information protection law that is seeking comments clearly states that the installation of image capture and personal identification equipment in public places should be necessary to maintain public safety, comply with relevant national regulations, and set up prominent reminders. The personal images and personal identification characteristics of the person can only be used for the purpose of maintaining public safety, and shall not be disclosed or provided to others; the "Civil Code" officially implemented on January 1, 2021 is clearly stated in the "Personal Rights Edition", The handling of personal information including faces should follow the principles of lawfulness, fairness, and necessity; Tianjin, Nanjing, Hangzhou and other places have also introduced or are preparing to introduce new regulations in recent days to rectify violating face recognition systems.
According to media reports, on the eve of the National Two Sessions in 2021, Liu Wei, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of Jiadu Technology, proposed that office buildings, shopping malls, enterprises and other units, parks, schools, and markets should apply for approval before applying facial recognition technology. , The lawfulness, legitimacy and necessity shall be reviewed by the public security department in accordance with the law.
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