Regulation Of Facial Recognition Technology Under The Perspective Of Personal Information Protection

The second decade of the 21st century is the golden age of the development of information technology in China.During this period,Big data,cloud computing,artificial intelligence and other information technologies have been emerging,which have not only taken the amount of China’s digital economy to the first place in the world,but also profoundly been affecting our lifestyle and thinking habits.Nevertheless,the new generation of artificial intelligence which is represented by Facial Recognition Technology,has an invisible impact on people’s traditional understanding of privacy,freedom of speech and non-discriminatory treatment.Social risks brought by the development of information technology have been accumulated rapidly.Facial recognition technology has already been in the spotlight of legal regulation by the United States,European Union or other countries.China,with facial recognition technology widely used in the whole country,should pay more attention to prevent the society from the potential risks of facial recognition technology,and carry out effective legal measures to avoid the appearance of irreparable social crisis.Under the background above,this article takes the United States and the European Union as cases of study,for both of them are in a high level of development and legal regulation in facial recognition technology.The researching methods of Comparative analysis,clauses analysis and cases analysis are chosen for this research.From the perspectives of regulatory theories and specific legal rules,the article summarizes their similarities and differences after analyzing the United States and European Union carefully and respectively.Based on the current regime of law and legal practices of China,the experiences of US and EU could never fail to take a lesson for us to explore a unique way of regulating facial recognition technology in line with China’s actual conditions.Specifically,the article consists of four chapters.Based on facial recognition technology,Chapter Ⅰ focuses on the analysis of the technical characteristics of facial recognition technology and further the main legal risks caused by these technical characteristics.It is expounding the necessity of legal regulation that this part intends to concerning facial recognition technology.Chapter Ⅱ mainly explores the basic legal theories of facial recognition regulation in the United States and European Union.The United States has developed the theories of right of information privacy and right of public privacy,while the European Union based on the theory of independent fundamental right of personal information.Although there are great distinctions in the legal status of right of personal information,both of them emphasize the strict regulation towards government.Chapter III concentrates on the analysis to specific legal rules of facial recognition technology in the United States and European Union.The United States prefers to regulating facial recognition technology by specific legislation,such as BIPA or FRTA.However,European Union choose another absolutely different road.It prefers to build a rigorous general data protection legal system to encompass new information technologies such as facial recognition technology into its jurisdiction.In spite of these differences,both of them distinguish government and private entity in order to make out various restriction strategies to balance people’s rights and social interests better.Armed at government,they follow the stricter precautionary principle before the project of facial recognition technology is implemented,while a litter looser precautionary principle after infringing laws concerned is applied to regulate private entity.Looking back to China,Chapter IV manages to investigate the true conditions of the law to regulate facial recognition technology in the modern society,and arouses the vigilance and crisis consciousness of our legislature and general people.Based on the legislative experiences of the United States and European Union,the article draws a conclusion that the right to personal information should be established as a constitutional fundamental right,and the precautionary principle should be implemented to regulate facial recognition technology.