Alibaba arm seeks to use police face scans to open bank accounts

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s financial arm is seeking regulatory approval to access the Chinese national police’s database so consumers can open online bank accounts with a mug shot.

The financial arm, which operates the PayPal-like Alipay service, is planning to use the Face++ facial recognition system developed by partner Megvii Inc. The idea is that this would allow consumers to set up accounts without having to physically go to a bank,

Megvii Chief Executive Officer Yin Qi said in a recent interview.
“In terms of technology, everything has been sorted,” said Yin, 27, who dropped out of Columbia University’s doctorate program in computer science to co-found Beijing-based Megvii, whose latest round of funding values the company at US$100 million. “We are just waiting for regulators to approve.” The plan helps illustrate how Alibaba is joining the likes of Facebook Inc, Google Inc. and Baidu Inc. in embracing biometric technologies and artificial intelligence. Megvii’s application uses facial scans held in a Ministry of Public Security database drawn from legal identification files on about 1.3 billion Chinese.