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Tencent deploys facial recognition to detect minors gaming at night

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Re: Tencent deploys facial recognition to detect minors gaming at night

#11
Everytime I think software is already ridiculous and going to far something happens that goes so far I can hardly believe it. This is one of those things.

It won't take long at this rate until it's completely normal for the software of big companies deciding what you can and can't do at all times during the day.

Re: Tencent deploys facial recognition to detect minors gaming at night

#12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tencent: "show me your face or I won't let you pay my game", me: "fine I won't play your game then" Government: "show me your face or else[1]", me: "r-right away sir" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_on_violence

So you expect people to live without any entertainment? Just work eat and sleep I guess.

Tencent has a monopoly on entertainment?

Re: Tencent deploys facial recognition to detect minors gaming at night

#14
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you expect people to live without any entertainment? Just work eat and sleep I guess.

Tencent has a monopoly on entertainment?

No but you are apparently oke with entertainment requiring face scans to access. If Tencent can do it it won't be long untill every large publisher does it.

Re: Tencent deploys facial recognition to detect minors gaming at night

#15
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you expect people to live without any entertainment? Just work eat and sleep I guess.

Tencent has a monopoly on entertainment?

It would be quite hard to be a gamer and completely avoid playing anything that Tencent doesn't at least partly own.

Re: Tencent deploys facial recognition to detect minors gaming at night

#16
post #9

It’s a horrible invasion of privacy and personal liberty, but hey, it isn’t the government doing it and you agreed to this when you accepted the terms of service. /s

Tencent: "show me your face or I won't let you pay my game", me: "fine I won't play your game then" Government: "show me your face or else[1]", me: "r-right away sir" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_on_violence

The article states that "authorities stepped in" and that this is at the very least some type of public-private partnership where "the gaming platform’s facial verification system" is "linked with big data from the central public security system".

My inclination is to assume this is compelled by the Chinese state.

Re: Tencent deploys facial recognition to detect minors gaming at night

#18
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tencent has a monopoly on entertainment?

No but you are apparently oke with entertainment requiring face scans to access. If Tencent can do it it won't be long untill every large publisher does it.

If people only want to produce games that require giving up your privacy to play, then you have to make a choice between giving up games, or giving up privacy. Ultimately those are the only choices available to you that don't involve bending peaceful people to your will under pain of imprisonment.

Perhaps a third choice, that also doesn't require resorting interfering with other people's private choices, with legal threats that emanate from the state's monopoly on violence, is to lobby to allocate a portion of public funds to subsidizing game publishers that respect privacy.

In any case, even a modest portion of the population choosing to avoid privacy-compromising game publishers would establish a market for privacy-preserving games. So this is really a matter of consumers educating themselves and making responsible choices.

The real problem here is likely the state stepping in to force all game publishers who attain Tencent's market reach to institute these kinds of measures.

Re: Tencent deploys facial recognition to detect minors gaming at night

#19
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tencent has a monopoly on entertainment?

It would be quite hard to be a gamer and completely avoid playing anything that Tencent doesn't at least partly own.

Maybe if you jump from game to game and try to play the "latest and greatest" all the time. There are plenty of people who mostly play a few games or niche games.

Re: Tencent deploys facial recognition to detect minors gaming at night

#20
post #9

It’s a horrible invasion of privacy and personal liberty, but hey, it isn’t the government doing it and you agreed to this when you accepted the terms of service. /s

Tencent: "show me your face or I won't let you pay my game", me: "fine I won't play your game then" Government: "show me your face or else[1]", me: "r-right away sir" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_on_violence

The PRC government controls which organisations are permitted to publish games in China, so it's not as simple as just choosing to play some other company's games. Tencent et al are de facto arms of the government.
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