Research on Face Recognition and Privacy in China—Based on Social Cognition and Cultural Psychology

With the development of big data technology, the privacy concerns of face recognition have become the most critical social issue in the era of information sharing. Based on the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, social cognition, and cross-cultural aspects, this study analyses the privacy of face recognition and influencing factors. The study collected 518 questionnaires through the Internet, SPSS 25.0 was used to analyze the questionnaire data as well as evaluate the reliability of the data, and Cronbach’s alpha (α coefficient) was used to measure the data in this study. Our findings demonstrate that when users perceive the risk of their private information being disclosed through face recognition, they have greater privacy concerns. However, most users will still choose to provide personal information in exchange for the services and applications they need. Trust in technology and platforms can reduce users’ intention to put up guards against them. Users believe that face recognition platforms can create secure conditions for the use of face recognition technology, thus exhibiting a higher tendency to use such technology. Although perceived ease of use has no significant positive impact on the actual use of face recognition due to other external factors, such as accuracy and technology maturity, perceived usefulness still has a significant positive impact on the actual use of face recognition. These results enrich the literature on the application behavior of face recognition and play an important role in making better use of face recognition by social individuals, which not only facilitates their daily life but also does not disclose personal privacy information.