(Yicai Global) Aug. 8 -- Alipay, a mobile payment service under Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. [NYSE:BABA], recently unveiled a personal income tax query system featuring its facial recognition (FR) technology at Jiangsu province's taxation bureau, bringing the number of cities in China offering such services to 40.

The service allows users to check their personal tax income payment records and housing provident fund accounts, pay for traffic tickets, make tax declarations and verify their identities for claiming pensions and linking electronic social insurance cards to online accounts, Sina Technology reported today. More than 8.75 million Alipay users have employed the FR-based service in the last three months.

The precision of facial recognition systems is above 99.6 percent, the report said, citing a technology specialist. Multi-factor authentication based on several biometric indicators is used to accurately analyze differences caused by aging as well as changes in hairstyle, weight and makeup.

The mobile payment platform will popularize this service on a nationwide scale. It is looking at the feasibility of applying FR in other types of government activities that involve identity authentication.