TOKYO : A SoftBank-owned company is thriving by offering face-recognition technology fuelled by a blacklisted Chinese firm to the likes of Mastercard and Visa, an opportunity for the Japanese conglomerate, fraught with geopolitical and privacy risks.
The JCV-SenseTime partnership highlights SoftBank's difficult balancing act as Son tries to position his conglomerate as a neutral player even while tensions mount between two key markets, the United States and China. JCV's rapid expansion also faces privacy concerns from regulators and consumers as facial-recognition technology goes mainstream. SenseTime's shares plunged 50 per cent last week with the end of a lock-up period after its initial public offering.
Washington accuses the Hong Kong listed firm of developing facial-recognition technology that can be used to identify ethnic Uyghurs. Fast Retailing said its temperature scanners do not store or transmit any of the information they capture. Aeon declined to comment.