Who Owns Your Face?

Facial recognition has moved from airports and banks into ordinary shops and phones. A face can now be used as a key, a password, and an identity document all at once.

人脸识别已经从机场和银行，走进了普通商店和手机里。一张脸现在可以同时当钥匙、密码和身份证件用。

The convenience is real: there is nothing to remember and nothing to carry. The difficulty is that a face cannot be changed the way a password can.

它带来的方便是真实的：不用记，也不用带。麻烦在于，脸没法像密码那样改掉。

If a password leaks, we replace it within minutes. If a face database leaks, the affected person has no way to obtain a new face.

密码泄露了，我们几分钟就能换一个。可人脸数据库一旦泄露，受影响的人根本没办法换一张脸。

Several cities have therefore banned the technology in public spaces, while others are expanding it. The disagreement is not really about the machines; it is about who is allowed to keep a record of us.

于是有的城市在公共空间禁用了这项技术，有的城市却在大举铺开。分歧其实不在机器本身，而在于：谁有权留下关于我们的记录。

Rules written for passwords do not fit a feature that is permanent and always visible. Until that gap is closed, the safest position is to ask who holds the data, and why.

为密码写的那套规则，套不住一项永久存在、随时可见的身体特征。在这个缺口补上之前，最稳的立场是先问清楚：数据在谁手里，用来做什么。