A member of the Human Rights Council spoke about a fine he received for riding the Moscow metro without a mask after using Face Pay. Metro representatives said this was impossible

A Moscow metro passenger who paid for his ride using the Face Pay facial recognition system was fined for not wearing a mask, Human Rights Council member Igor Ashmanov told Parlamentskaya Gazeta.

A very innovative man learned that you can pay with your face on the subway, registered with Face Pay, submitted biometrics and started riding. A couple of days later, he received a fine for riding the subway without a mask - three thousand rubles .

Ashmanov noted that many other passengers also travel without masks, but they cannot be identified by their faces.

The press service of the Moscow metro rejected information about using Face Pay to control the wearing of masks, emphasizing that this is technically impossible. “To do this, at a minimum, you need to collect personal identifiers of passengers - last name, first name and patronymic. When registering for the Face Pay service, this data is not required. Thus, the metro cannot even match a person's photo with his personal identifier,” the press service said .

A representative of the metro emphasized that the data of passengers connected to Face Pay is used only for its intended purpose - to pay for travel.

• Fare payment via the facial recognition system was launched in the Moscow metro in the summer of 2021. Since October, it has become available at all stations.