Google may pay people $5 for facial data to train Pixel 4.

Google will launch its next generation of Pixel phones-Google Pixel 4 and Google Pixel 4 XL-in October. Before the official release, we had seen a series of rumors and loopholes and detailed the features of the Pixel 3 successor. Thanks to the pictures and rumors shared by the tech giant, we already have a good understanding of these features-such as triple rear camera settings, Soli radar chips, dual front cameras and display fingerprint sensors-and we probably know that Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL may be equipped with face recognition technology similar to FaceID. Now

Google employees are collecting people's facial data in public places in exchange for $5 worth of Amazon or Starbucks gift cards, according to a report by ZDNet. The report quoted engineer George as saying that he was sitting in a park in New York when two Google employees contacted him to collect facial data "to improve the unlocking of the next generation of facial recognition phones."

Google engineers asked him to sign a waiver and handed him a mobile phone, which he called "a very large phone case". He received a $5 gift card from Amazon or Starbucks in exchange for five minutes of interaction with his phone.

In a similar incident, reddit users in New York were named "a very heavy, square and unobtrusive device" on the platform. According to Redditor, the device "has no bottom bezel, but has two front cameras, a speaker and an interesting vertical sensor on the top bezel, and four holes in the upper left corner of the back"-which is very similar to the Google Pixel 4 image rendering we've seen recently.

The Google team also collected facial data from other cities, the report said.

Although Google is unlikely to improve its face recognition technology in the face of data, Google (which already has a lot of data) usually seeks data directly from the public. Even so, it would be interesting if only Pixel users could use advanced face unlocking technology, otherwise Google would benefit Android users from development.