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One of the political parties participating in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) will submit a proposal to the upcoming two sessions for regulating the use of facial recognition technology and better protecting personal information. 

Facial recognition data has played an important role in city management but the widespread abuse of facial recognition technology poses a threat to the privacy and property safety of citizens, the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang said in its proposal, according to the paper.cn.

The Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang will bring this proposal to the upcoming fourth session of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC, China's top political advisory body. 

A crackdown should be launched on the illegal installation of facial recognition video recording and data collection, and security vulnerabilities should also be fixed, the party suggested.  

Personal information protection has become a widespread concern in China this year, when collecting citizens' biometric data, including their facial and fingerprint information, has become increasingly common amid the COVID-19 epidemic.

Several Chinese cities, including Tianjin and Nanjing, had issued policies banning the illegal collection of facial information and compulsory facial recognition.

Shi Yuhang, a lawyer and certified information security professional (CISP), told the Global Times that central authorities are now working on protecting citizens' information security better with constantly improving laws and regulations at a national level.

Shi said these regional laws are far from perfect when it comes to protecting citizens' personal information, and called for laws at a higher legal level to regulate facial information collection.

Global Times