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Comment by ButWhatFor | Hacker News Reader

I think I’ve seen someone pay with AliPay using their face... pretty far ahead of what we have...

>pretty far ahead of what we have...

call me a luddite but that's one innovation that I can do without.

Agreed - but if you live in China, the government already has your face mapped and is tracking you wherever you go... so maybe it is a zero additional cost for their citizens to give their face away to another application.

I was in an airport in China. A screen said "Walk up to the camera and we'll tell you which way to your gate.". I did so, the screen highlighted my face on the camera feed, showed me my name and my gate. Geezus Christ, they don't hide the fact that they're tracking faces...

When you first enter China, you have to let a machine scan your face (IIRC fingerprints too?), and locals have to scan their (RFID-enabled) IDs to enter airports or train stations; so they seem to really have total control.

I hear this and feel fear. "It's 1984 come to life", I shout. I suspect in China they look at this advance proudly and say "What a Brave New World!"

London Heathrow has face-tracking gates. Entering the US has required fingerprints for many years, at least for me.

I can't imagine how an international traveller could in good faith single out China as having "total control" on these grounds in a way that is qualitatively different from Western countries.

U.S. airports do this too, but you can opt-out.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2019/08/1...

Some flights from Europe to US do this at the gate -- there's no opt-out. I remember flying AA from AMS and everybody had to get scanned before boarding (CBP agents were present).

here we have "Clear"

https://www.clearme.com

The difference is that Clear is a paid, private service, not a government requirement.

How is a face authorization? Can I just point my phone at you and take your money?

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