China Is Publicly Shaming Pajama Wearers By Using Facial Recognition

Chinese city Suzhou decided to shame people for wearing pajamas in public. What’s truly shocking is that the Suzhou management department used facial recognition to identify seven such people. The management then shamed those people on social media for this “uncivilized behavior.”

Wearing pajamas in public is pretty normal for people in China. However, the city condones people who follow this trend. That is why the authorities published the location where those people were spotted wearing pajamas along with their photos, names, and identification numbers.

The post included photos of both men and women wearing pajamas in public. According to the New York Times, one such photo showed Ms. Dong wearing “a plush pink robe, matching pants, and orange pointy flats.” Thankfully, the authorities later removed the post from social media due to public backlash.

In response to the backlash, the officials said that residents were banned from entering a “civilized” city wearing pajamas. Later, the city officials “sincerely apologized” when people responded to this breach of privacy with anger.

This “apology” doesn’t mean that officials won’t post photos of people adopting any “uncivilized behavior.” In the future, they will only blur the pictures before posting them on social media.

“We wanted to put an end to uncivilized behavior, but of course, we should protect residents’ privacy,” said the officials.

According to BBC, a total of 170 million surveillance cameras are spread all over China, and the numbers will cross 500 million by the end of 2020. Most of these cameras are linked with artificial technology so they can very quickly identify people on the street.

So, it’s strange and scary how unfairly Chinese authorities are using facial recognition technology.

Via – Softpedia News