Face mask, 10,000 yuan can be "privately customized"!

A man put on a silicone face mask, disguised himself as an old man, sneaked into the homes of four residents, and stole more than 100,000 yuan in property. After receiving a report from a resident, the Shanghai Minhang police acted quickly and arrested the suspect Tong in other provinces and cities the next day and recovered all the stolen goods.

According to public information, silicone face masks are made of special silicone or similar materials, and are usually used in films, TV series or stage play makeup. Police in many places have reminded that using silicone face masks to disguise as new faces to commit crimes is becoming a new method for some criminals to commit crimes.

The suspect purchased an elderly film and television silicone mask online. Photo courtesy of Minhang Branch of Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau.

These silicone face masks

Where did it come from?

Manufacture and sale of silicone face masks

What are the legal risks involved?

And how should it be regulated and regulated?

It is available in several online stores, claiming to be highly restored

According to the Rule of Law Daily, the reporter searched for "human skin mask" as a keyword on multiple e-commerce platforms and found that the word had been blocked by the system, showing "no related goods found". However, if you change the keywords such as "silicone mask", you can see many merchants, and the products sold include "mask adult full-face silicone headgear", "easy-to-face real person face-changing human skin mask", "elderly silicone mask face full face", etc., with prices ranging from a few yuan to tens of thousands of yuan.

These silicone face mask products are not only varied, but also come in a variety of designs. Some businesses have launched celebrity face simulation masks, claiming that they can highly restore the facial features of celebrities with realistic effects; Some merchants offer existing model headgear, which can cost up to 3,000 yuan; There are also merchants who claim to be able to provide masks, headgear "private customization" services, the core selling point is "ultra-realistic" and "simulation customization", the price is determined according to the complexity and fineness of the mask, about 3,000 yuan to 25,000 yuan, from the order to the completion of about 1 month.

When asked what information needs to be provided for the customized service, one merchant responded: "If you can find a 3D scan, you can send us the size of the CT scan." If not, provide a photo, head, facial features, and a 360-degree face photo. ”

The reporter consulted 6 businesses that sell such masks: Do you need to provide personal information? The other party unanimously replied "no", and neither asked the reporter about the purpose and use of the mask.

In the comment area of such products, there are many inquiries about "whether silicone masks can be fake" and "whether they can pass the liveness detection of face recognition". Some buyers replied that wearing a silicone mask can pass the face detection at work. Merchants also said that the customized silicone mask has more than ninety percent similarity with a real person, and there is no problem with clocking in and out.

Mimicking biometrics involves multiple risks

Liu Jiong, an associate professor of criminal law at Xiamen University Law School, pointed out that the face mask is not a simple ornament, but a materialized carrier of face recognition information. It usually uses 3D printing technology and other means to materialize face data and make it into a hood or mask made of silicone and other materials. These masks not only have a high degree of fidelity, but also mimic the biological characteristics of a natural person to a certain extent, such as recognition, uniqueness and uniqueness.

"On the one hand, the use of face masks by buyers may evade surveillance and identification, making it more difficult to identify criminal suspects and offenders. This can be summed up as 'I don't want people to know who I am'. On the other hand, face masks can also be used to circumvent facial recognition technology and impersonate someone else to commit theft or other illegal acts. This can be summed up as 'I want people to think who I am'. Liu Jiong said that in these two cases, whether it is in the civil, administrative or criminal fields, there are certain legal risks.

Meng Qiang, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Institute of Technology, said that the sale of facial masks by merchants on e-commerce platforms may involve a variety of legal risks, or give rise to civil liability, administrative liability and even criminal liability.

"The legitimacy of the business of customizing face masks depends on a number of factors. For example, whether the use, production and sales process of the customized face mask is legal, whether it violates personal privacy, portrait rights, etc. Meng Qiang said that in some cases, custom face masks can also be used for legal purposes such as movie special effects, if the custom face mask involves infringement of personal privacy, portrait rights, reputation rights, etc., or the lack of legal and compliant sales processes, or involves illegal and criminal acts, etc., it is illegal.

"Face masks may become a tool for upstream and downstream crimes, the upstream is responsible for collecting biological information such as faces, and the downstream may involve subsequent use, such as for fraud, theft, etc., so that the merchant's sales behavior breaks through the principle of technical neutrality of the criminal law and may constitute the crime of providing criminal tools." Liu Jiong said.

Appropriate regulation is carried out to ensure that it is not abused

"The legality of the act of customizing a face mask is not a generalization, but depends on the specific use and scenario." Liu Jiong said.

He pointed out that in most cases, the original intention of the public to buy face masks may be to meet their individual needs or use them on special occasions, but when this act is used for illegal purposes, such as fraud, invasion of other people's privacy, etc., the nature of the mask changes fundamentally. Therefore, this operation cannot simply be regarded as wholly illegal, but should be judged on a case-by-case basis.

In Meng Qiang's view, the production, sale and use of face masks do have a greater risk of infringement and illegality, and it is more feasible to improve legislation and regulations and moderate supervision than to ban them completely. For example, strengthen the construction of relevant laws, regulations and rules, clearly define the legal and illegal uses of face masks, and strengthen the supervision mechanism in all aspects of production, sales and use, so as to reduce and reduce the risk of face masks being used for infringement and illegal acts while ensuring legitimate demand and reasonable use.

Meng Qiang suggested that the production and sale of face masks could be differentiated and supervised according to the degree of realism and use based on the different levels of risk. Products that are highly realistic or even capable of being used to deceive facial recognition systems or mislead others should be strictly regulated because of the greater risk of infringement and illegal crimes. In contrast, masks that are clearly festive or clearly unreal should be less restricted and regulated due to their entertainment and lower risk of misleading.

Liu's suggestion is that when customizing face masks, business providers should be required to conduct strict identity verification and use review. For highly realistic masks, they should be filed and reviewed by the public security department.

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Manuscript source: Rule of Law Daily, Jiupai News, Hecheng released a comprehensive

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