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Facial Recognition Used On Students, NZ University Confirms
Phil Pennington, Reporter
A New Zealand university is using facial recognition on students at one of its overseas campuses in China.
Facial recognition has overtaken fingerprinting as the world's most widespread and powerful biometric tool to identify people or allow them in to places.
The University of Waikato said its Waikato Joint Institute at Hangzhou City University in China is using the technology.
It was "used for facility access. It is not used in place of roll call", the university told RNZ.
China has millions of facial recognition cameras, and also exports the systems to scores of other countries.
It uses them, among other things, to track people's behaviour as part of adding or subtracting to their 'social credit score', while human rights agencies regularly question the tech's use against minorities like the Uyghurs.
RNZ had queried Waikato after a university moderator told an economic forum this week that one way AI was being used was in facial recognition for its Chinese students and staff.
"The operations of our offshore campuses are influenced by our partners in those institutions and use practices that are appropriate at that university," the university said in a statement.
It did not use it locally.
It "does not use and has no plans to introduce use of facial recognition technology on its New Zealand campuses, and as such does not have a policy on its use".
Hamilton tech entrepreneur Brandon Hutcheson told the same economic forum New Zealand should explore more uses of facial recognition, such as schools using it to call the roll.
The Police Association said recently that police were sitting back and worrying, while supermarkets charge ahead with facial recognition.
"Facial recognition technology (FRT) is an area where Aotearoa needs to break the shackles of yesterday's thinking or false understanding of the capacity of technology," it said.
RNZ
New Zealand's public broadcaster, providing comprehensive NZ news and current affairs, specialist audio features and documentaries.
Radio New Zealand is a Crown entity established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. Radio New Zealand News are vital elements in our programming, providing impartial news and information to New Zealanders every day. Radio New Zealand (RNZ) provides listeners with exciting and independent radio programmes in accordance with the Radio New Zealand Charter.
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