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There’s so much stolen data in the world, South Korea will require face scans to buy a SIM

https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/22/south_korea_facial_verification/

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/55485315

Angel Mountain - 14hr

There's so much stolen data, let's produce more data that can be stolen...

I feel 1984 we passed the situation in 1984 now, and the book now depicts a utopia instead of a dystopia.

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_cryptagion [he/him] - 14hr

This seems like just a ploy to collect biometric data for all citizens. Especially given the fact that Samsung owns a significant portion of the entire South Korean economy, and they also run advertising. This would be Google’s wet dream.

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lens0021 @programming.dev - 15hr

Korean here. My country hasn't even collected the data yet, so it will. What were they thinking?

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[object Object] - 14hr

My guess is that they hope this somehow stops the scam calls.

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village604 @adultswim.fan - 13hr

Considering the worldwide rise of fascism, I have doubts this is intended to benefit the citizens.

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SomethingWentWrong @lemmy.ca - 9hr

There was a recent study done by the University of Cambridge which analyzed the black market for fake accounts across various platforms in multiple countries. They found there was a correlation with the price of these accounts and ease/difficulty in setting up a SIM farm for that country.

Snippets from https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/price-bot-army-global-index

“One SIM card can be used for hundreds of different platforms,” said Dek. “Vendors recoup SIM costs by selling high-demand verifications for apps like Facebook and Telegram, then profit from the long tail of other platforms.”

....

A new analysis using twelve months of COTSI data, published in the journal Science, shows that verifying fake accounts for use in the US and UK is almost as cheap as in Russia, while Japan and Australia have high prices due to SIM costs and photo ID rules.

So the likely outcome of this Korean effort will be to increase the costs for fake accounts but not to entirely eliminate them. With the extra risk of another place for sensitive data to be leaked.

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Shifty Eyes - 15hr

How does this work with all the plastic surgery going on and people changing their faces for vanity?

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tal @lemmy.today - 5hr

Biometrics are irrevocable. If you're worried about stolen personal data, they are not what I would be moving to.

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