Focus tightens on facial recognition

In April 2019, Guo paid 1,360 yuan ($211) for a VIP pass to the park and agreed to use fingerprint recognition to enter the venue under the contract.

A short time later, he received the message requiring him to provide facial information for the venue's upgraded entry system.

Guo rushed to the park and asked who authorized the use of facial recognition technology. He also inquired about the devices used to implement it, "but no staff members were able to give me a clear answer", he said.

"It was a complete mess. I even saw workers scanning visitors' faces on their mobiles."

After failing to cancel his membership at the park, he sued the venue at Fuyang District People's Court in Hangzhou in October 2019 for contract violation.

The case, widely acknowledged to be the country's first lawsuit involving facial recognition, has triggering widespread public attention and discussion on the ever-increasing use of the technology in China.

A month later, the court ordered the park to pay 1,038 yuan in compensation for Guo's loss of contract benefits and to cover his transportation costs. The venue was also told to remove his facial data from its membership records.

Guo explained his decision to appeal to a higher court-Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court－which early last month upheld the original ruling.

"I couldn't accept the result, as the core problem of my litigation－whether a zoo has the right to gather people's facial information and whether the park is qualified to require facial recognition in the contract－had not been resolved," he said.

Early this month, Guo appealed to Zhejiang High People's Court for a new hearing. "A clear answer from justice on this issue is more significant for me, all the other VIP pass holders and people nationwide," he said.