AI Weekly: In China, you can no longer buy a smartphone without a face scan

Picture a world in which the baseline requirement for a new smartphone is a facial recognition test. You needn't imagine it -- in China, beginning December 1, that's the scrutiny to which the country's over 850 million internet users will be subject, without exception. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in a late September statement that the rule, which will also prevent people from exchanging their mobile numbers, was necessitated by an uptick in phone and internet fraud. Furthermore, the ministry pledged that it would help to "increase supervision and inspection" and "strengthen assessment accountability" while "supervis[ing] the implementation of work" and the "real-name registration management of telephone users." A rule imposed by the German interior ministry in 2016 requires that domestic telecoms ask customers for ID cards, foreign passports, or temporary ID papers when they buy a SIM card or a cell phone.