Facebook
Facebook is considering using profile pictures to identify members using its controversial facial recognition technology.
Facebook’s “Tag Suggest” feature
currently identifies faces in newly uploaded photos by comparing them
with pictures in which the users have previously been tagged. Facial
recognition software is used to calculate a unique “template” based on
someone’s facial features, like the distance between the eyes, nose and
ears.
Templates are only created for people on
Facebook who have been tagged in a photo. Facebook users can choose to
de-tag themselves from photos posted by other users on the site, and
these photos will not be used to create the template.
In an update to its data use policy,
however, the social network revealed plans to use profile pictures to
suggest tags. Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan told Reuters that
adding members’ public profile photos would make it easier for users to
identify photos in which they appear.
“Our goal is to facilitate tagging so
that people know when there are photos of them on our service,” Egan
said, adding that Facebook users who feel uncomfortable with the facial
recognition technology can opt out of the Tag Suggest feature
altogether.
Facebook facial recognition software has
long been controversial. It wasturned on by default in 2011, meaning
members had to opt out if they did not want to be part of the system,
resulting in an outcry from privacy campaigners, who claimed that data
had been collected and processed without consent.
The social network was then forced to
switch off its facial recognition tool and delete data collected from
European users in October 2012, following an investigation by privacy
authorities in Ireland and Germany. Facial recognition is still disabled
in Europe but the software is gaining traction in the US.
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