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

South Korea’s government on Friday announced it will require local mobile carriers to verify the identity of new customers with facial recognition scans, in the hope of reducing scams.

As explained in an announcement from South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT, the nation has a problem with criminals registering mobile phone accounts and then using them to run scams such as voice phishing.

The nation’s new policy therefore extends existing customer authentication arrangements, which see buyers required to present verifiable identity documents at the point of sale, to add verification of a facial scan.

South Korea’s three main mobile carriers – SK Telecom, LG Uplus, and Korea Telecom – each provide an app called “PASS” that stores digital credentials. This new scheme will see facial biometric info stored in that app used to verify identity.

The Ministry’s announcement of the scheme says it’s hoped the ...