Taiwan to investigate biometrics company Megvii following U.S. blacklisting

Biometric Update
Date: Oct 15, 2019 
By: Luana Pascu

After Chinese biometrics company Megvii was blacklisted by the U.S. government last week, Taiwan Economics Minister Sheng Jong-chin announced at a hearing of the Legislative Yuan’s Economic Committee that Taiwan is now also looking into reviewing the company, after it received a contract to implement a facial recognition security system at Taichung Power Plant, writes Focus Taiwan.

The Minister’s announcement came after national security concerns were raised at the meeting by a legislator of the New Power Party. Megvii is one of the 28 biometrics companies added to the U.S. government’s Entity List for alleged involvement in human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang region.

Megvii’s technology is used to monitor the time and attendance of contractors, but not power company employees, entering and leaving the power plant, according to the report.

“These entities have been implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups in the XUAR,” reads the statement issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce.    [FULL  STORY]