France Set to Roll Out Nationwide Facial Recognition ID Program
This is a rather poor and click-baity article.<p>According to the French government's page on this system [1] (in French):<p>The system is an app that generates login details to allow online access to (public?) services.<p>You install the app on your smartphone. It uses NFC (I suppose) to read your picture (also other details?) from your passport's chip, and stores it locally on the phone. It then uses this to perform facial recognition using the phone camera in order to identify the phone's user. No biometric data leave the phone according to [1].<p>The stated aim is to allow people to conduct administrative tasks (forms, applications) fully online where it is not currently possible because a "hard ID check" is required. It will not be compulsory.<p>It sounds a bit like Apple's Face ID but backed by official documents (passports) and with the government's seal of approval, some sort of passport check performed by your smartphone.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Actualites/L-actu-du-Ministere/Alicem-la-premiere-solution-d-identite-numerique-regalienne-securisee" rel="nofollow">https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Actualites/L-actu-du-Ministere...</a><p>As an aside comment, in France most people have a passport, and everyone has an ID card, which requires having photo and fingerprints taken. So this does not give the government anything that they don't already have (or could have) and it seems that they took precautions to avoid unnecessary transmissions of biometric data.