28 October

Face data you register for building access or member entry can identify you just as a fingerprint can. On 28 October 2019, a university associate professor in mainland China filed a lawsuit with the Fuyang District People's Court in Hangzhou against a zoo, because the zoo had switched entry for annual-pass holders from fingerprints, which the professor had registered, to facial recognition. In 2020 the first-instance court found that checking visitors by fingerprint or facial recognition was lawful in itself, but because the two sides had agreed on fingerprint entry and the zoo had not told the plaintiff what the photos were for, the court ordered the zoo to delete the plaintiff's facial data, and in 2021 the appeal court upheld the ruling and also ordered the zoo to delete the plaintiff's fingerprint data, since the zoo had stopped using its fingerprint gates. In Japan, according to a report in the Akita Sakigake Shimpo in October 2025, JR East had in July stopped using face-recognition security cameras at some Tokyo-area stations (meant to detect wanted suspects and alert the police); the Japan Federation of Bar Associations had asked it to stop using them over privacy concerns, and JR East gave its reason as the end of a contract with an outside company and a review of the cameras' effectiveness. Wherever you are, when you are asked to register your face you can first ask whether a card or QR code would work instead.