More frequent facial verification checks among measures to deter illegal platform workers

Platform operators have been asked to increase the frequency of facial verification checks on users throughout the day on their apps to deter foreigners from engaging in illegal platform work.

- Esther Loi

Senior Minister of State for Manpower Koh Poh Koon said on Sept 26 that operators would "go more upstream" to tackle the problem of illegal platform work, in response to Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh and Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Punggol GRC), who posed questions about the issue.

Increasing the frequency of facial verification checks was one of 10 recommendations released earlier in September by a work group formed by the Government to tackle various issues facing platform workers.

These checks will take place during the onboarding process when new delivery riders register for accounts to ascertain their identities, and randomly throughout the day while they are receiving orders.

Dr Koh said the checks can prevent the fraudulent use of accounts on delivery platforms.

These camera scans cannot be circumvented by uploading a photo of someone else and act as a "strong deterrent" against using someone else's account, he added.