South Korea is moving ahead with a plan to let mobile carriers verify new subscribers with facial recognition, part of a wider government effort to stamp out the fraudulently opened lines that fuel voice-phishing scams. The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the comprehensive anti-fraud package on June 30 and said optional facial recognition for mobile phone activations would begin on July 6.
The facial recognition step is voluntary. Users who choose it would go through at least one, and up to three, verification checks before a line is activated, building on a pilot the ministry has run since December as part of its campaign against voice phishing. The plan arrives after pushback over privacy and rights: the Personal Information Protection Commission recommended improvements around unclear legal grounds, limits on user choice, and data minimization, while the National Human Rights Commission raised concerns about basic rights.
In response, the ministry is widening the menu of verification options rather than relying on face matching alone. Smartphone users will be able to verify themselves with the mobile ID app issued by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and people without smartphones can use a resident registration certificate issued the same day. The rollout is phased: enhanced multi-factor methods in August, an automatic check for forged registration certificates in September, amendments to the Telecommunications Business Act enforcement decree in October to clarify the legal basis for facial recognition, and a standard activation-restriction feature from November.
The package builds on a steady tightening of South Korea’s telecom identity rules, from the telecom face-verification mandate to the civil-rights groups that urged a review of the biometric sign-up requirement. The ministry is also stiffening oversight of carriers, allowing immediate sanctions and a one-strike rule for dealers, after joint inspections led to penalties against firms including YG Telecom and Hanpass International for activations made with copied passports.
“As burner phones have become a key tool in various crimes, strengthening identity verification during the activation process is an effective preventive measure to protect citizens’ property and identity,” said Choi Woo-hyuk, head of the ministry’s Information Protection and Network Policy Office.
Sources: Aju Press
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
