Chinese hospitals are using facial recognition to identify people who sell doctors' appointments at an illegal markup.
State media said Sunday more than 30 hospitals in Beijing have installed the technology and have already identified more than 2,100 individuals who appear regularly to make appointments, then turn around and sell them to others for a profit.
Chinese public hospitals require patients to line up for appointments to see a doctor, creating a lucrative secondary market for scalpers to sell them better numbers to save time.
China has been aggressively applying facial recognition technology in everything from distribution of toilet paper by public lavatories to identifying jaywalkers, virtually in real time.
President Xi Jinping's government is using technology ranging from data processing to genetic sequencing and facial recognition to tighten control.