Leading expert of ANO Dialogue Timofey Vee criticized activists who call the Face Pay technology in the Moscow metro an invasion of privacy and demand its ban.
“We have already gone through something like that. When the first smallpox vaccinations appeared, peasants rushed at doctors with sticks. When the industrial revolution began in England, the Luddites staged pogroms in factories and factories, ”he said.
The expert drew attention to the fact that this technology was dreamed of in 2018 by the strategy director of the payment operator of the London transport system, and now it has appeared in Moscow.
“It is important that it complements and does not replace existing fare payment methods,” he stressed.
The Face Pay system was launched on October 15 at all metro stations in the capital. In order to take advantage of the new technology, you need to register in the Moscow Metro application by linking the Troika transport card and a bank card with funds to pay for travel. You also need to upload your photo, which is translated into an encrypted biometric key – it cannot be decoded back into a face image. It is better to register a few hours before the trip so that the data can be loaded into the system.
Face Pay gates are marked with round black stickers on the floor. It is also possible to transfer free of charge to the MCC with a bank card according to the tariff.
According to the deputy mayor of the capital for transport issues Maxim Liksutov, in the next few years about 10-15% of passengers will switch to paying for travel by “face”.