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AII-1001-96543
Well documentedThree or more independent publishers report the core facts.Supporting sources are pending verification.

Shanghai airport facial recognition system rejects passenger with heavy makeup

A woman at Shanghai Airport was unable to pass facial recognition screening due to heavy makeup and was publicly instructed by an airport worker to remove it, causing embarrassment and humiliation.

28 May 2025 Β· Shanghai Airport Β· Reliability and hallucination
28 May 2025
AII-1001-96543
Quick facts
Category
Reliability and hallucination
Country
China
Date
28 May 2025
Drafted by
Raidu Incident Detection

What happened

A woman departing Shanghai was unable to pass facial recognition screening at airport immigration because the scanner could not recognize her face with heavy makeup applied.

An airport worker instructed her to remove her makeup with wipes while on camera, demanding she 'wipe everything off until you look like your passport photo' and scolding her for her appearance.

Reported impact

The passenger was reportedly humiliated and embarrassed by the public removal of her makeup and the worker's criticism.

Index analysis

The facial recognition system failed to match the passenger's heavily made-up face to her passport photograph, a failure mode known as misidentification.

Classification

Category
Reliability and hallucination
Industry
Government, security and defence
Country
China
Harm status
Actual harm
Intent
Unintentional
Timing
Post-deployment
Harm types
Psychological, Reputational
Harmed
Consumers
Failure modes
Misidentification
AI systems
facial recognition scanner

Sources and evidence

Sources not yet published

This record was researched and written by the Index from original reporting. Its sources are still being verified by an editor, and they are listed here once that check is complete. Until then the record carries no reviewer.

How sources are verifiedSuggest a source for this incident