China’s hotel industry is backing off from facial recognition “overuse” as the country’s authorities put more emphasis on protecting biometric data privacy. This news has been recently shared in the CCTV User Group.

A story from BiometricUpdate.com states that Hilton, Marriott and H World are some of the hotel chains in Shanghai that have already discontinued the practice of scanning their guests’ face biometrics during check-in, Yicai Global reports.

In its story, BiometricUpdate.com said that China has been making a legislative pushback against commercial use of the technology and hotels and leisure have been among the first industries in line. The pause in using facial recognition technology for hotel guest verification comes after the country’s top tourism official called the hospitality industry to prioritise the privacy of travelers. In March, president of the China Tourism Academy Dai Bin said that the sector’s use of the technology has overshot legal boundaries for purposeful use, citing complaints from tourists.

Public complaints over privacy violations have also been recorded in banking, transportation, logistics, IT and other areas.

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