Phone's facial recognition fails.

[Ysc3]

Sleeping Chinese man robbed of life savings as smartphone’s facial recognition system is caught napping

 

ZHEJIANG (China) — A facial recognition system failed to protect a Chinese man from a pair of sneak thieves who managed to unlock his phone while he was sleeping and steal his life savings of more 12,000 yuan (S$2,421), according to a local television news report.

 

The man from Zhejiang province, identified only as Mr Yuan, contacted the police on Tuesday after noticing the money had disappeared from his bank account, the report said.

 

Following an investigation, officers charged Mr Yuan’s two roommates with the theft, saying they unlocked the phone while the victim was sleeping and used WeChat Pay to transfer the funds to their own accounts. The stolen cash was later returned to Mr Yuan.

 

The report did not name the brand of phone, but an unnamed police officer said it cost about 1,000 yuan.

 

“It seems the facial recognition feature on Mr Yuan’s phone isn’t very reliable,” he said. “We conducted our own tests and found you could unlock it even with the eyes closed.”

 

Many smartphones are fitted with a facial recognition system as a security device, but not all require iris scanning, so they can be unlocked more easily.

 

China leads the world in facial recognition technology and it is rapidly becoming a feature of people’s day-to-day lives.

 

Biometric computer applications that cross-reference huge databases of digital images and employ a variety of technologies, including iris scanning, are now widely used by security and surveillance teams to spot everyone from suspected criminals to jaywalkers

 

Mr Tan Jianfeng, founder of Shanghai Zhongren Network Security, said that while fingerprint and facial recognition systems were useful, people should continue to use personal identification numbers to keep their personal data and finances safe.

 

“If a password is lost, you can change it, but biometric information is not reproducible,” he said.

 

“Once it has been leaked, you can’t get a new face. In the era of big data, once a biometric authentication has been completed all of that information is converted into machine code – and as long as it is in that form it can be intercepted.”

 

In 2015, China’s Ministry of Public Security launched a project to build the world’s most powerful facial recognition database

 

Its aim is to be able to identify any of the country’s more than 1.3 billion citizens — by matching facial scans with the images on their identity cards — within three seconds and with an accuracy rate of 90 per cent.

 

Meanwhile, Chinese technology companies like Tencent, which developed WeChat Pay, have adopted facial recognition systems for use in retail, travel and mobile payments. People can also now withdraw cash from ATMs using facial recognition. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

 

[electrofollow]

When it comes to facial recognition infrared is better than optical only.

[Didu]

Mr Yuan spend 1,000/12,000 i.e. about 8.3% of his life savings on a phone. OMG 

[Angcheek]

This cannot never happen to our @radx ... no phone can recognise him   . All phone are armed with a "auto destroy in 3 sec" mechanism once they see his pic . 

[Ysc3]

With the masking up, the phone facial recognition is not able to work. I had to type in my password everytime. 

However,  a moment ago,  I had my mask pulled BELOW my nose, covering from my upper lip to my chin when I picked up my phone and the phone unlocked! 

Mine is Mate 9. And Mate 20.

Anyone can try this with your other phones? 

@BabyBlade ... Understand you using mate20 also? Can try and see if it works? 

 

 

[Hamburger]

I tried mine with my sunglasses on. Unlocked. 

 

Geeezzzzz.... HW P20

[Somewhat1975]

1 hour ago, Ysc3 said:

With the masking up, the phone facial recognition is not able to work. I had to type in my password everytime. 

However,  a moment ago,  I had my mask pulled BELOW my nose, covering from my upper lip to my chin when I picked up my phone and the phone unlocked! 

Mine is Mate 9. And Mate 20.

Anyone can try this with your other phones? 

@BabyBlade ... Understand you using mate20 also? Can try and see if it works? 

 

 

iPhone here. same

[BanCoe]

On 4/20/2019 at 5:06 PM, Angcheek said:

This cannot never happen to our @radx ... no phone can recognise him   . All phone are armed with a "auto destroy in 3 sec" mechanism once they see his pic . 

Wah! thanks for sharing your "experience"  

[Angcheek]

36 minutes ago, BanCoe said:

Wah! thanks for sharing your "experience"  

Took you 1.5 yr to respond 😆 you been searching for Radx's Pic ?

[Angcheek]

2 hours ago, Ysc3 said:

With the masking up, the phone facial recognition is not able to work. I had to type in my password everytime. 

However,  a moment ago,  I had my mask pulled BELOW my nose, covering from my upper lip to my chin when I picked up my phone and the phone unlocked! 

Mine is Mate 9. And Mate 20.

Anyone can try this with your other phones? 

@BabyBlade ... Understand you using mate20 also? Can try and see if it works? 

 

 

For woman , it all depends on whether they have makeup on 😄✌ mask has no effect 

[Stratovarius]

3 hours ago, Ysc3 said:

With the masking up, the phone facial recognition is not able to work. I had to type in my password everytime. 

However,  a moment ago,  I had my mask pulled BELOW my nose, covering from my upper lip to my chin when I picked up my phone and the phone unlocked! 

Mine is Mate 9. And Mate 20.

Anyone can try this with your other phones? 

@BabyBlade ... Understand you using mate20 also? Can try and see if it works? 

 

 

I'm using op7t. Same except for I can unlock with mask on. Few weeks back had to use fingerprint as facial unlock not working. Dunno when but since 2 , 3 weeks back, I can unlock using facial recognition with mask on. Weird, given that I did not receive any ota update. 

[racerbum]

On 11/26/2020 at 1:39 PM, Angcheek said:

Took you 1.5 yr to respond 😆 you been searching for Radx's Pic ?

LOL 😂 That's quite too long...