You have to paint your face to see animals? Zhejiang University Professor Dissatisfied with Zoo’s Face Recognition, Takes Him to Court

2020-11-25 17:28 Source: Breaking News - Breaking News - Politics

“Why should I have to paint my face if I’m going to the zoo to see an animal?”

When face recognition was widely used in the access control of workplaces and communities, Guo Bing, a professor at a university in Zhejiang Province, took Hangzhou Wildlife World to court for invasion of privacy and breach of service contract because he was dissatisfied with the way Hangzhou Wildlife World used face recognition to enter the park.

Video source: CCTV Finance Channel

The court ruled that Hangzhou Wildlife World Limited (hereinafter referred to as Wildlife World) should compensate the plaintiff, Guo Bing, for the loss of contractual benefits and transportation expenses totaling RMB 1,038, and delete Guo Bing’s fingerprints. The annual card submitted by the facial characteristics of the information, including photos; reject Guo Bing’s other claims to confirm the invalidity of Wildlife World store notices, SMS notifications and other relevant content.

In April 2019, Guo Bing paid 1,360 yuan for the Wildlife World “365 days” annual card for two people and determined the fingerprint identification method of admission. Guo Bing and his wife left their names, ID numbers, phone numbers, etc., and recorded their fingerprints and took photos.

After Wildlife World adjusted the annual card customer admission from fingerprint identification to face recognition, and replaced the store signs.

In July and October 2019, Wildlife World sent text messages to Guo Bing twice, notifying him of the replacement of the annual card admission recognition system and requesting the activation of the face recognition system, otherwise normal admission will not be possible.

Guo Bing thought that the facial information was sensitive personal information, refused to accept the facial recognition, and asked the park to refund the card.

The park said that the upgrade of the annual card users' entry method was because the fingerprint punching card was time-consuming, and during the peak period of holidays, annual card users would swipe their fingerprints to swipe their cards, and some of them suddenly could not swipe their fingerprints in, or the fingerprint machine was slow to respond, which would cause a long queue at the gate.

Afterwards, both parties unsuccessfully negotiated on entry methods, card refunds and other related matters, so Guo Bing filed a lawsuit, demanding that the relevant content in Wildlife World’s store notices and SMS notices be invalidated, and that Wildlife World claim compensation for annual card fees, transportation fees and the deletion of personal information for breach of contract and fraud.

The court held that the parties in this case had formed a service contract by purchasing the annual park card, and the dispute arose from a change in the way the park was accessed, and that the focus of the dispute was the evaluation and regulation of operators' handling of consumers' personal information, especially personal biometric information such as fingerprints and faces.

Chinese law does not prohibit the collection and use of personal information in the consumer field, but emphasizes the supervision and management of the processing of personal information, i.e., the collection of personal information should follow the principle of “lawful, proper and necessary” and obtain the consent of the parties concerned; the use of personal information should follow the principle of ensuring safety, and should not be disclosed, sold, or used for any other purpose. When personal information is infringed upon, the operator shall be liable for the corresponding infringement.

In this case, when the customer applied for the annual card, Wildlife World informed the card buyer in the form of a notice in the store that he was required to provide some personal information, and did not make any unfair or unreasonable stipulations to the customer. Guo Bing became an annual card customer by providing personal information such as his fingerprints at his own discretion. Wildlife World’s use of fingerprint identification, face recognition and other biometric identification technologies in its business activities does not violate the principles required by the aforementioned laws.

However, if Wildlife World changes the original fingerprint identification for park entrance to face recognition during the contract performance, it is a breach of contract for unilateral contract change, which Guo Bing clearly disagrees.

When the two parties applied for the annual card, they agreed to use fingerprint identification to enter the park, and the collection of Guo Bing and his wife’s photo information by Wildlife World exceeded the requirements of the principle of necessity in legal terms, so it was not justified. In addition, no evidence was found in the trial that Wildlife World had committed fraud against Guo Bing.

In summary, the Fuyang Court rendered the aforementioned judgment in the first instance.

One important reason for the public’s attention to this case is that while the advancement of biometric identification technology brings infinite convenience to people’s lives, how to define the legal, reasonable and necessary collection of biological information, especially sensitive personal private information such as faces and fingerprints, etc. It is hoped that this case will also arouse the attention of the relevant departments, and more detailed and effective regulations will be issued as soon as possible to protect the privacy of personal biological information.

Source: People’s Court News Media Head Office, Hangzhou Fuyang Court

Original title: “Seeing animals and painting their faces? Zhejiang University Professor Dissatisfied with Zoo’s Face Recognition, Takes His Case to Court

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