Privacy issues raised with ID face scans

SINGAPORE－Singapore will become the first country to use facial verification in its national ID program, but privacy advocates are alarmed by what they say is an intrusive system vulnerable to abuse.

From next year, millions of people living in the city-state will be able to access services at government agencies, banks and other organizations with a quick face scan. This biometric check will do away with the need to remember a password or security dongle when performing many everyday tasks, its creators say.

It is part of the financial hub's drive to harness technology, from ramping up the use of electronic payments to research on driverless transport.

"We want to be innovative in applying technology for the benefit of our citizens and businesses," said Kwok Quek Sin, who works on digital identification at Singapore's technology agency GovTech.

Facial verification has already been adopted in various forms around the world, with Apple and Google implementing the technology for tasks such as unlocking phones and making payments.

Governments have also deployed it at airports for security checks on travelers.

But Singapore's rollout is one of the most ambitious yet, and the first to attach facial verification to a national identification database.

The technology captures a series of photos of a person's face in different lighting conditions.

These images are matched with data already available to the government such as national identity cards, passports and employment passes.

Verification process

Safeguards ensure the process is secure, said Lee Sea Lin of the digital consultancy Toppan Ecquaria, which is working with GovTech to implement the technology.

"We want to have assurance that the person behind the device is a real person … and that it is not an image or a video," Lee said.

The technology is being integrated into the country's digital identity program and is being trialed at some government offices, including the tax authority and the city's pension fund.

Private firms can sign up to the initiative, and Singapore's biggest bank DBS is part of the trial.

Face scanning technology remains controversial despite its growing use, and critics have raised ethical concerns about it in some countries－for instance, over law enforcement agencies scanning crowds at large events to look for troublemakers.

Kwok of GovTech insists that no data would be shared with third parties and users would be left with other options, such as personal passwords, to access services.

Agencies via Xinhua