Face to face

Facebook feature raises privacy concerns

Social media giant Facebook announced Tuesday that new facial recognition features on the site will help protect users’ privacy.

The technology allows Facebook to recognize facial features on photos even when identities aren’t “tagged” by the uploader.

This will allow the site to notify anyone whose features match an uploaded photo. The idea is to crack down on “catfishing” scams where a false profile is created using real information or posting of “revenge porn” pictures by former significant others.

It will also help those who are blind or have significant vision loss better identify who is in photos posted on the site.

Now, we are sure the motive here is just what Facebook says. They are trying to cut fraud and enhance the user experience.

It’s still unnerving to some degree and the announcement has led to worries that the technology will be used for some deep, dark purpose.

Truth is, there is really not much new here.

According to a post on Facebook’s blog, the site has been using facial recognition for years.

“Since 2010, face recognition technology has helped bring people closer together on Facebook. Our technology analyzes the pixels in photos you’re already tagged in and generates a string of numbers we call a template. When photos and videos are uploaded to our systems, we compare those images to the template,” the post says.

The biggest change is that now those with Facebook accounts will have a say in this. The company says users will be able to turn facial recognition on or off with a simple switch.

That’s should come as a relief to the most skeptical out there—if they believe it, that is.