Using facial recognition? Be prepared to provide alternatives

ONCE the stuff of dystopian science-fiction, facial recognition is fast becoming part of everyday life.

One's face can be used to unlock smartphones, aid with automated hotel check-ins, and help in clearing immigration. Yet even as such technology improves and proliferates, it remains to be seen just how comfortable citizens will be with it, and how far they will admit it into their lives.

One concern is accuracy: how easily such systems can be fooled. Google's Pixel 4 - on which facial recognition can be used to unlock the phone, sign in to apps and confirm payments - included a disclaimer that "someone who looks a lot like you" or someone who holds the phone up to your face "even if your eyes are closed" can succeed in unlocking it.