Facial recognition technology identifies people who sell doctors' appointments for profit

Chinese hospitals are using facial recognition to identify people who sell doctors' appointments at an illegal markup, latest application of an emerging techlogy that is being used in places to tighten Communist Party control over country's 1.4 billion people.

More than 30 hospitals in Beijing have installed techlogy and have alrey identified more than 2,100 individuals who appear regularly to make appointments, n turn around and sell m to ors for a profit, state media said Sunday. 

Chinese public hospitals require patients to line up for appointments on day y wish to see a doctor, creating a lucrative secondary market for scalpers to sell m better numbers and save on waiting time.

China's markets are rife with counterfeit goods and fraud, and China has been aggressively applying facial recognition techlogy in everything from distribution of toilet paper by public lavatories to identifying jaywalkers virtually in real time.

RE | Passengers can soon use Facial Recognition Biometric to enter airports under Digi Yatra Initiative

It's among techlogies that President Xi Jinping's government is deploying also including processing of big data, buying habits and genetic sequencing to increase party's store of personal information about individual citizens.

Such data is being fed into a system of "social credit" that rewards or penalizes individuals based on ir behaviour. 

Those with offences ranging from failure to pay taxes and fines to walking a dog without a leash can face punishments including being barred from buying tickets for flights or seats on country's high-speed trains.

Human rights activists say "social credit" is too rigid and might unfairly label people as untrustworthy without telling m y have lost status or how y can win it back.