About a month ago, I wrote an article on Safaricom collecting facial data in a re-registration drive they said was in line with the Communication Authority of Kenya’s(CA) guidelines.

Well, it now seems Airtel Kenya is also doing the same. However, as you’ll see – unlike Safaricom who specifically mentioned “facial recognition” in their response to me – Airtel says “we’ll take your photo”. Yes, they could mean the same thing – I don’t know.

Airtel Kenya is collecting facial recognition data in a new re-registration drive they say is part of meeting CA Kenya's guidelines.

I am yet to go to a Safaricom shop to update my details.

I also have an Airtel SIM card, and unless it becomes mandatory for me to access the network, I won’t be going to give my facial data. We already established that the CA guidelines don’t mention Facial Recognition as part of the Know Your Customer guidelines.

It is unclear why a photo is needed to update details. The phone number you get is unique, and so are the identification documents required for registration.

Have you gone to update your details? What has the experience been like?