The recent launch of the futuristic iPhone X has triggered a hot-button global debate on Facial Identification (Face ID) technology, citing potential safety risks the fledgling technology could pose.
APPLE: FACE ID DEBUT
Having abandoned its most iconic Home button's Touch ID function, iPhone X optimizes its customers' experience by allowing them to unlock their iPhones simply by scanning their faces through the Face ID function.
Concerns over security and privacy were immediately raised since a person's face contains large mounts of private information, which might be exposed in the internet database through Face ID function, adding odds of being the victim of fraud.
"We do not gather customer data when you enroll in Face ID, it stays on your device, we do not send it to the cloud," said Craig Federighi, Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering.
But a bigger worry lies in the possibility of Face ID's being attacked by its owner's picture or other impersonative faces with make-up or masks.
"Your passcode can be hacked, but your face is yours and yours alone," Apple Inc responded, adding that Apple X is designed to resist spoofing by photos or masks.
"Face ID is enabled by the TrueDepth camera, which projects and analyzes more than 30,000 invisible dots to create a precise depth map of your face," according to a statement of Apple Inc.
Inevitably, of course, twins or people who look naturally alike can be a potential problem for iPhone X.
But Apple Inc has stressed that with Touch ID, Apple's fingerprint technology, the chance that a random person could unlock your phone with his or her fingerprint is one in 50,000, while with Face ID, it is one in one million, which makes it so secure that you can use it with Apple Pay and check out with just a glance.
"With just a glance? So the fraud can just install a payment machine inside a public mirror, and people will be paying for whatever he buys when they look at themselves in the mirror?" asked a customer.
Perhaps not that easy. For additional security, Face ID is attention aware, meaning it unlocks your iPhone X only when you look toward the device to make sure you are actively trying to use it, heading off chances of being hacked in such situations as taking a nap in public.
Over this function, some netizens come up with more practical concerns saying that "the lack of any fingerprint reader could cause problems for blind people who can't focus their eyes on anything."
If you are blind or vision impaired, Federighi said, you may just turn off the "attention detection" feature at a lower level of overall security.
Moreover, a netizen called Kandee Johnson said, "I'm not sure how the iPhone X face recognition will distinguish between me with make-up and without make-up. Because the difference is real."
And, more seriously, what about cosmetic surgery? Netizens are also showing deep concerns for China's internet celebrities and those South Korean beauties, who have extremely similar faces after accepting cosmetic surgery with the same aesthetic trend.
Apple explained by saying, "Once it knows you, it knows you," adding that the A11 Bionic chip uses machine learning to recognize changes in your appearance as you change hair styles, grow a beard, wear sunglasses, wear a hat, or have plastic surgery.
How about people who either cover their faces for religious or professional reasons? Will Face ID system recognize them?
Apple made a response saying that Face ID is not going to be a viable option for people who wear a mask for work or wear a niqab, which means they would need to use a passcode.
"This limitation is similar to Touch ID, which simply don't work if you wore gloves or had wet hands," Federighi said.
In other tricky scenarios as being asked by a thief or your wife to hand over your device, you can "quick disable" Face ID by gripping either volume button plus the power button, holding them a little while to get back the passcode authentication.
CHINA: A FRONT RUNNER
When it comes to digital payments, China has been a front runner, and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba recently rolled out the world's first "smile to pay" service, allowing its customers to pay with a mere flash of a smile.
The "smile to pay" service was launched by Alibaba's Ant Financial affiliate in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, also the location of the company's headquarters, where customers can complete the payment process even without carrying a smartphone.
Faces are scanned by a 3D camera at the point-of-sale to verify customers' identity, with additional security assured by an option of phone number verification.
Ant Financial, which operates China's largest mobile payment tool Alipay, has already allowed its 450 million active users to access their digital accounts by scanning their faces.
Within a month, people's faces have been added up with more functions in China such as ID cards, boarding cards, train tickets and even passports.
"People would be able to travel all around the world without even carrying their passports or smartphones; your face is everything in the future," said Jack Ma, Alibaba Group's founder and chairman.
Actually, the world-shocking technology is already old hat for some customers of China Merchants Bank and the Agricultural Bank of China, who have been able to get cash from the Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) without even bringing their bank cards.
Since 2015, China Merchants Bank has installed the face ID function in 1,000 of its ATMs in 106 Chinese cities, followed by the Agricultural Bank, which in January enabled 470 of its ATMs to dispense cash by scanning its customers' faces, with an expansion plan of 100,000 ATMs in China.
Customers just need to take a picture to make sure the image scanned at the scene can match the pre-scanned photograph, effectively trimming the risk of counterfeited cards and avoiding such incidents as cards getting stuck in the ATMs.
In line with Chinese regulations, those who use the Face ID function will have a daily withdrawal limit of 3,000 yuan (455 U.S. dollars), compared with the 20,000 yuan (3,032 dollars) limit for daily withdrawals via bank cards.
Chinese cities are also cracking down on jaywalker by installing facial recognition kits at intersections to identify and shame them by posting their photos on public screens.
It still remains to be seen whether the Face ID technology will expand to become the norm. But when the whole world is taking cautious steps towards the technical innovation, China has been a pioneer to embrace the technology.
