This Chinese Facial Recognition Company Left People's Data Exposed

Dhir Acharya - Feb 14, 2019

6.8 records exposed in the last 24 hours. Criminals can use the database exposed through the facial recognition system to blackmail people.

Information about millions of people in China has been exposed online by a facial recognition firm, according to a security researcher.

The Chinese company SenseNets offers crowd analysis and facial recognition technology, which the company showed off during a promotional video. The technology helps SenseNets track people around cities and tell them apart in the crowd.

Tracking cameras are installed around China

However, on Wednesday, Dutch security researcher Victor Gevers found out the company could not protect its database with a password. There were over 2.5 million people profiled in the database, including addresses, birthdays, ID card numbers, as well as locations where they were spotted by SenesNets.

According to Gevers, over 6.8 million locations were logged within the past 24 hours alone, which include hotels, police stations, mosques, internet cafes, and tourist spots. He said anyone could view these records or follow the movements of a person using real-time face recognition of the company.

Gevers also messaged:

GDI Foundation also contacted SenseNets to warn the company about the database exposure, which started in July. The company didn’t respond to a comment request.

Anyone can view the database

Gevers added that in China, there were 1,039 separate devices tracking people. Notably, the Uygur population logged in one camera. This is a Muslim minority group in Xinjiang, which has been alleged of human rights abuses by the Chinese government. The security researcher additionally discovered that someone has tempted to hold the database ransom before.

Whenever a person was spotted by facial recognition by a tracker, the database logged on SenseNets is exposed. Gevers said that the cameras have their own names and IP addresses tied to a location.

Facial recognition in China is pervasive with the aim to monitor citizens around the country. China has plans to provide citizens with social credit score by 2020, collected through their behaviors when logging in facial recognition, such as shopping and jaywalking frequency. China had installed approximately 200 million tracking cameras, the number may be tripled next year.