The Moscow Metro last week launched the world’s first toll payment system to use facial recognition technology. The cashless, cardless and smartphone-less system is called “Face Pay” and has been installed at the gates of nearly 240 metro stations in the Russian capital.
To enter the metro, the passenger only has to look at the camera and stay still for a few seconds. The system recognizes this and immediately opens the gate. Since no one needs to touch the surface of the smartphone or take out the card and put it in front of the reader, the creators of this solution hope that it will contribute to the decline of the coronavirus disease.
To activate the service, the passenger must download the mobile application on the smartphone, associate it with the payment card and the so-called Trojka (transit card) and upload your photo to the smartphone’s memory.
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According to the creators of the service, it is completely secure, because all data exchanged with it is encrypted, and the camera does not collect any confidential data from the passenger, it only records a specific type of biometric key assigned to it. It is initially estimated that over the next few months this service will be used by one in six people using the Moscow Metro.
It is estimated that up to 15% of metro passengers will use it regularly Face payment in the next three years. Moscow has already widely implemented facial recognition technology, with a network of nearly 200,000 cameras used to identify suspects.
Authorities in Moscow have long used cameras and facial recognition technology to monitor the situation on the streets and roads. Therefore, activists fear that such systems – including Face Pay – will be seen as surveillance tools that allow central and local governments to control society.
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