'Pay With Your Face' Technology Tested in a KFC Store In China

An anonymous reader quotes Quartz: Ant Financial, the financial services spinoff of e-commerce giant Alibaba, announced Friday it has rolled out a service with a KFC branch in Hangzhou, in eastern China, that lets customer pay for orders with their faces. It works just as one might expect -- diners approach a virtual menu, select the item they want to purchase, and then choose "facial scan" as a payment option. Users must input their phone numbers as an extra layer of verification, but the technology still works even if one's phone is turned off, an Ant Financial spokesperson tells Quartz.

A promotional video shows a young female customer scanning her face while donning a wig and appearing with friends, to tout that the technology can recognize an individual even if they are disguised or in a group... [T]he KFC partnership marks the first time it has been rolled out for commerce. An Ant Financial spokesperson tells Quartz that it intends to roll out the scanning at more locations later.
There's rumors of a similar service coming from Jd.com, according to the article, which also provides several examples of facial recognition technology being used by the Chinese government. "The Communist Party, facing no political opposition or democratic checks, can implement controversial technology with little pushback. This all means that facial recognition in China looks set to steadily move beyond a few novelty cases toward near ubiquity."

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

Want to bet Taco Bell tries a drone delivery in Mongolia next?

I would bet against it. Chinese (and presumably Mongolians) don't care much for Mexican food, There were a few Taco Bells in China, but they closed a decade ago.

Currently in Ulaanbaatar: Good Mexican chow here

[bdwoolman]

Tacos at MexiKhan are great. As are the other items. Popular with the locals, too. Salsa lessons every Saturday. Run by a charming Cubano gentleman named Ernesto. Mongolians are quite different from the Chinese. Just ask them.

Re:

[nospam007]

"First it was Burger King, then Pizza Hut, and now KFC."

These being US companies, let's hope not every Chinese looks the same to their computers..

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

They all look alike to me.

Asian faces have just as much variance as European faces. If you spend time around Asians, your facial recognition neural network will reprogram itself, and you will have little difficulty recognizing individuals.

Btw, Asians think white people all look alike.

Re:

[meerling]

Mine won't, I have a rather measurable level of face blindness. For me, recognizing Asian faces is just as hard as recognizing ANY face.

Re:

[Scarletdown]

That is just typically a silly little joke and minor harmless ribbing.

In fact, I have a little twist on that one that I use myself.

"Eh, Chinese, Japanese, Korean... Those Asian gals look the same... Hot." :D

Re:

[Applehu Akbar]

If you spend time around Asians, your facial recognition neural network will reprogram itself, and you will have little difficulty recognizing individuals.

I have actually seen this effect: after several years in Asia, I came home and at first everybody looked alike.

Re:

[lbmouse]

Don't you mean Naraka?

How is this better?

[alvinrod]

I don't get how this is better. It doesn't seem faster, more reliable, or more secure than using a mobile phone for payment. Add the creepiness of a company taking pictures of you and I can't see a good reason for this when we already have other technologies that make payments quick and painless.

Re:

[toonces33]

Then they can ID you and sell the customer information to insurance companies.

Re:

[meerling]

Considering that facial recognition is still in it's infancy and basically sucks with far too high of a failure rate, not just that it doesn't recognize someone it should, but also recognizes people as the wrong people, AND this sucker is linked to your wallet/bank account, I'd avoid it like the plague as it's still far too risky with little to no benefit for me.

Re:

[boundary]

Worse, they want you to eat KFC. Monsters.

Hmmm, what would it cost

[Snotnose]

for the plastic surgery needed to make me look like Bill Gates?

Re:

[meerling]

Phone numbers are really easy to get! Heck, with a phone book and facebook you could probably get all the info you needed to scam most people.

Pay with my face?

[devnullkac]

That's what happened after I kicked my brother!

Pay with your face in China?

[Anonymous Coward]

I know china's the mecca of organ harvesting, but paying for some chicken with your face is a bit over the top. Still, I wonder what a face transplant costs over there.

new Hollywood franchise

[bugs2squash]

Now Nicolas cage and John Travolta will start fighting again, this time over burgers.

Re:

[meerling]

As long as we don't have to watch, or listen to it, I don't really care. (I don't like either of them.)

If you had a coupon....

[Templer421]

Would that be saving face? ;)

If they keep eating at KFC...

[MindPrison]

...Their face won't be recognizable after a few visits.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

KFC already has this technology in the US. As you can see, it is widely in use:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEQNw_shwYI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-2WemWWQRg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImaBjj26i9A ... etc

Re:

[Badger Nadgers]

But as the number of spots increases, so does the number of distances and angles between the spots on their face, thus increasing the system's accuracy

What can possibly go wrong?

[QuietLagoon]

Convenience instead of security. Yup, that's always a better approach.

What happens with identical twins?

[Applehu Akbar]

Will they be required to get (1) distinguishing tattoos, or (2) a joint set of bank accounts and credit cards?

pay with your face?

[4wdloop]

so an arm and a leg no longer enough in China?

Biometric authentication

[manu0601]

Please remind me, was facial scan already hacked by some Chaos Computer Club member, or is it the next news?

Biometric authentication is always wrong because authentication credentials are public and cannot be changed. Once someone finds a way to fool the system, there is no password chage, the only fix is to replace it entirely.

not fair

[slashmydots]

Totally discriminates against identical twins. Lawsuit pending I'm sure.

Hacked!

[Badger Nadgers]

by Clearasil.

Ex...

[Kristofer Vesi]

Your ex will have your photo and your phone number. Now your ex has ""free"" KFC