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Facebook Disables Face Recognition In EU

SquarePixel writes "Facebook has disabled face recognition features on its site for all new European users. The move follows privacy recommendations made by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. Tag Suggest information has been turned off for new users, and Facebook plans to delete the information for existing EU users by October 15th. 'The DPC says today’s report (PDF) is the result of evaluations it made through the first half of 2012 and on-site at Facebook’s HQ in Dublin over the course of two days in May and four in July. The DPC says FB has made just about all of the improvements it requested in five key areas: better transparency for the user in how their data is handled; user control over settings; more clarity on the retention periods for the deletion of personal data, and users getting more control over deleting things; an improvement in how users can access their personal data; and the ability of Facebook to be able to better track how they are complying with data protection requirements.'"

57 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Europe knows what's going on by GameboyRMH · · Score: 5, Informative

    Other countries should get a clue before they lose what privacy they have left. It's not an obsolete concept just because the execs of the companies that stand to profit most from your personal info say so. Facial recognition technology is one of the biggest threats to privacy.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    1. Re:Europe knows what's going on by PieLala · · Score: 1

      Exactly. Google also has European headquarters in Dublin and I expect them to be next on list. Google has been abusing Europeans privacy for too long.

    2. Re:Europe knows what's going on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Other countries should get a clue before they lose what privacy they have left. It's not an obsolete concept just because the execs of the companies that stand to profit most from your personal info say so. Facial recognition technology is one of the biggest threats to privacy.

      So... all of the US Facebook account DO have the face recognition tech running non-stop? That's good to know.
      Facebook doesn't exactly announce all of the crap they do to fuck with your privacy. Slashdot is one of the places that keeps me informed.

    3. Re:Europe knows what's going on by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Other countries should get a clue before they lose what privacy they have left.

      Yet in many EU countries it is illegal to walk down the street if you shield your face from public view.

      As an American, I think holding the EU up as a model for personal freedom is ridiculous.

    4. Re:Europe knows what's going on by GameboyRMH · · Score: 4, Informative
      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    5. Re:Europe knows what's going on by rich_hudds · · Score: 1

      Can you list these countries? I call bullshit.

    6. Re:Europe knows what's going on by WaZiX · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yet in many EU countries it is illegal to walk down the street if you shield your face from public view.

      As an American, I think holding the EU up as a model for personal freedom is ridiculous.

      Well, don't know about personal freedom (although having lived both in the US and Europe, I feet more free in Europe), but on the internet privacy topic there are good things coming from the EU. Not taking those good things as a model would be kind of stupid... Just like judging the whole topic of personal freedom on a single law is kind of stupid.

    7. Re:Europe knows what's going on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      In the Urinated States of America, Pi is 3 and one (France? yes, no-one doubts that France is having a bit of a freedom crisis at the moment) is many.

      Explains corporation law, anyway.

      Meanwhile, in the "freedom from religion" US, Judeo-Christian law means you will get arrested for walking around on a beach showing the tits that "God" gave you - not to mention the unholy penis and the dirty, dirty vagina. Or have you become so indocrinated that you think there is some objective, secular reason why a guy/girl must cover up certain body parts? Perhaps you think that women will go wild if they see your flaccid member? Tell us, Shanghai'd Bill.

    8. Re:Europe knows what's going on by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Informative

      Can you list these countries? I call bullshit.

      Obscuring your face in public is illegal in France and Belgium. In some other countries, including Italy and Spain, there is no national law, but it is illegal in many localities.

    9. Re:Europe knows what's going on by rich_hudds · · Score: 1

      It's not illegal in Belgium, Italy or Spain.

      What you meant by 'many EU countries' was in fact France.

    10. Re:Europe knows what's going on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      They usually make special little exemptions for the religious because they're special snowflakes. Everyone else is fucked, though, even if they come up with some made-up religion of their own (which makes just as much sense as any other). Probably.

      Either ban it for everyone or no one.

    11. Re:Europe knows what's going on by Threni · · Score: 1

      Heh. I live in the next country along to France, and I find that any French-related difficulties I might be concerned with can be avoided completely by simply not going to France!

    12. Re:Europe knows what's going on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It is illegal to wear a mask in Cleveland, Ohio. (perhaps only in a parade, or mass gathering, etc) This law was passed to prevent the KKK from holding rallies there and being able to hide.

    13. Re:Europe knows what's going on by Sir_Sri · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The EU isn't about personal freedom. On the spectrum of 'liberty equality and brotherhood' (liberte, egalite fraternite) europe and canada have landed on the side of Equality before the others, the US 'liberty' first, and China and Japan are more in the 'brotherhood' as in service to the country first.

      As an American, I think holding the EU up as a model for personal freedom is ridiculous.

      As a canadian I think holding up the united states a model of anything worth emulating is ridiculous. About the only thing you can say you do better than we do is bomb people, and half the time that does more harm than good.

      See the problem? We all look at the primary responsibility of the role of government and the people differently. So we don't try and emulate each other, we should steal good ideas as they come up, and reject bad ones. The EU is trying to bottle up facebooks privacy invasion service, that's good. They supported the americans in torturing people, that's bad, but they're coming around to prosecuting that, which is good. The US has a relatively large federal government, in a single currency, the EU has almost no 'federal' government and a hodge podge of currencies but the Euro area is a single currency without a state, you can guess which is working better based on what is happening in Spain, Italy, and Greece.

      We also have recognize where our situations are different. Police in England don't carry guns, but there's also a lot less gun crime in england than in the US, so following the US model would be bad, and the US following the UK model wouldn't work either (unless you could magically make millions of guns appear or disappear of course).

    14. Re:Europe knows what's going on by Svippy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's not illegal in Belgium

      Yes it is. Please read the link I provided, or you can use Google to find hundreds of other references.

      It was a ban on burkas. Yes, it's ridiculous, but it is not illegal to wear masks in Belgium. It was a ban on religious clothing that obscures a face, particularly forced upon women. But the amount of burkas used in Belgium is probably at a minimum.

      Italy or Spain.

      Italy and Spain have local bans. For instance, obscuring your face in public is illegal in Barcelona.

      Actually, it's only illegal in public buildings, such as markets and libraries, which your link itself lists quite clearly. You can still walk outside while having your face obscured.

      So basically, your "many EU countries" is "France". Belgium's law will likely have little consequence, and it seems that the Barcelona law is a protection of public buildings. Not that Turkey is the pedestal of civil rights, but they also had a similar ban as Barcelona (until at least very recently).

      Denmark also have a ban on masks, but only during demonstrations and other large crowds. The usual freedom was previously abused heavily by activists to destroy property rather than actual demonstrate. The rationale is that if you are really interested in your message, you will have no issue showing your face at a public demonstration.

      But most of these laws seems to be a form of Islamophobia than an actual crackdown on civil liberties, which seems to be collateral damage. There was even talk about banning burkas in Denmark, until politicians realised only 5 people in the whole country wore them, and they were ethnic Danes who had converted to Islam. The cases might even be similar in most other EU countries. Like the Swiss ban on Minarets. Ridiculous.

      --
      Clicked pie.
    15. Re:Europe knows what's going on by pmontra · · Score: 1

      There is a national law about that in Italy. Link in Italian, automatic translation of the relevant excerpt: Law 533/1977, article 2 "prohibits the use of helmets and other items which are likely to make in whole or in part unrecognizable citizens participating in public events carried on in public or in a place open to the public;" (I won't do much better, that's law-speak). That's aimed at some kind of political/violent events, not at Carnival :-)

    16. Re:Europe knows what's going on by Lennie · · Score: 1

      Yes and they check the faces against a database supplied by the US-authorities.

      But I believe the image services of Yahoo, Bing and Google do the same.

      --
      New things are always on the horizon
    17. Re:Europe knows what's going on by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Yep, there was a big debate about the burka ban in France.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    18. Re:Europe knows what's going on by nospam007 · · Score: 1

      "Yet in many EU countries it is illegal to walk down the street if you shield your face from public view.
      As an American, I think holding the EU up as a model for personal freedom is ridiculous."

      I suggest you try walking up and down in front of a bank in the US wearing a balaclava.

    19. Re:Europe knows what's going on by nospam007 · · Score: 1
    20. Re:Europe knows what's going on by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Yet in many EU countries it is illegal to walk down the street if you shield your face from public view.
      Who told you that nonsense?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    21. Re:Europe knows what's going on by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      It was entirely unintentional, I'll be more careful about that.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    22. Re:Europe knows what's going on by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Your inability to recognize obvious context doesn't make the GP incorrect. "Europe does it right, but other countries don't." has a clear meaning and doesn't violate any of your rules. It means "in general, the countries that comprise Western Europe..." Yes, that's not PC, but when "Europe" is discussed, people go off that, except for possibly the people in Europe. Much like an "American" means a citizen or resident of the USA to everyone on the planet other than Spanish speakers, who seem to all suffer from a "false friend" confusion over it. What some people think "should be" doesn't trump reality. "Europe" is short hand for "in general, countries in Western Europe..."

  2. Billions prolly an underestimate over the millenia by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ok, Europe's solved a relatively minor problem hostorically -- evil corporations tracking you.

    Now you need to tackle the other 99.99% of the historical problem, billions-of-needless-deathswise, and stop government from facial recognition, and license plate recognition, and so on and automated assembly into tracking databases.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  3. Just Moved to Dublin, Ireland by Bob9113 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I just logged in to Facebook and changed my home to Dublin, Ireland.

    1. Re:Just Moved to Dublin, Ireland by confusedwiseman · · Score: 1

      In all seriousness, is there a possible way that this could be used to gain some advantage to protect privacy for U.S. users? If I logged into Facebook and changed my location would that work? I'd assume there were additional steps/measures necessary. Finding the balance between the use of the service and minimizing yourself as the "product" is challenging.

    2. Re:Just Moved to Dublin, Ireland by Bob9113 · · Score: 2

      If I logged into Facebook and changed my location would that work?

      In theory, it should. They could use IP geolocation, but that would be pretty noisy and probably would not satisfy the regulators. If you are a Dubliner on a business trip overseas or using a VPN through another continent, do you lose your legal protections?

      Regardless, though, suppose a few hundred thousand people log in and do this over the next few days. Even if it doesn't foil this lens of the panopticon directly, it does send a pretty strong (and rather amusing) message.

  4. Europe or only EU? by cdrnet · · Score: 1

    The article isn't very clear about this either.

    1. Re:Europe or only EU? by Schmorgluck · · Score: 1

      Good question. Most likely just the EU. The role of the Irish DPC is, among other things, to ensure compliance, in Ireland, to the Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. There's no such provision (that I know anyway) on the Council of Europe's level.

      --
      There's nothing like $HOME
  5. Re:Billions prolly an underestimate over the mille by Aqualung812 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My thoughts exactly. I really don't care about a big evil corporation knowing where I've been, my religion, what I weigh, who I have sex with, etc. If anything, the more they know about me, the more likely that they will make products I want to buy.

    However, the government knowing all of those things is actually something to be concerned about.

    I think it is quite a marketing feat by the EU: Make it appear that they are strong defenders of privacy by being ruthless in protecting the privacy of consumers, while implementing far worse privacy breaches on their own citizens.

    --
    Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
  6. What is Facebook good for, again? by cristiroma · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Excuse my ignorance, but I don't have have myself an Facebook account. What is exactly good for? I don't chat, I usually prefer to talk to friends over a beer. I share pictures over Picasa. So what value would an Facebook account add for someone? Thank you.

    1. Re:What is Facebook good for, again? by SilentStaid · · Score: 1

      A social life.

      It's fine and dandy to rebel against it, but like it or not Facebook provides a service (centralizing communication, sharing and event planing) and all they charge is your consent to farm your information. Failing to recognize Facebook's utilities in a sorry attempt at wit doesn't make you cool - it makes you a hipster.

      I don't like facebook, I don't have an account. But seriously - Facebook is good for people who want social interaction at the expense of privacy. No more, no less.

    2. Re:What is Facebook good for, again? by CCarrot · · Score: 1

      Single point of publication. You publish content, and hundreds or thousands of your subscribers can view it.

      Gee...full of yourself much? :o)

      Or you can announce that you are getting a divorce by changing your status from Married to Single, and you don't have to tell all your friends and family, thus allowing you to ignore painful questions that you will have a hard time dodging if asked face-to-face.

      Or, you can waste time fielding the endless concerned calls and emails from friends and family when, after forgetting to log yourself out of FB (*perhaps* due to a few too many bubbly beverages), one of your jerkwad friends starts editing your relationship status for you..."No mom, I did not break up with Jane. No, I am not, nor have I ever been in a committed relationship with John. My 'friends' are just dicks."

      True (but hilarious, at least to those watching) story.

      --
      "I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
    3. Re:What is Facebook good for, again? by f()rK()_Bomb · · Score: 1

      The big one for me is events. Friends set up events on facebook and also music gigs, etc. Brilliant way of tracking them. I even have it linked into google calendar with all my other items I need to track like college timetable, etc. Its light years better than when I had to read through newspapers and stuff to find out when things were on, or had to ring a load of people to set up a night out or whatever.

      --
      "The space elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing." - Arthur C. Clarke ~1980
    4. Re:What is Facebook good for, again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      A social life.

      ... because it's clearly not possible to have a social life without using Facebook, I guess?

    5. Re:What is Facebook good for, again? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      If you don't have, never had an account on facebook, you don't know hoe facebook works.
      That alone makes your point invalid ... and you are wrong anyway.
      Hint: I have some friends on facebook.
      I publish a foto from a party in a pub.
      You are on that foto.
      Everyone who knows you gets a message: new photo with SilentStaid published. (Your girlfriend assumed you where at your parents at that time, did she not?)
      I for my part did not sign for that when I 'joined' facebook.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  7. Google Image by djscoumoune · · Score: 1

    Now just wait for Google Image to recognize what's on pictures...

  8. Julian Assange was right on Facebook... by dryriver · · Score: 3, Informative

    Assange called Facebook "The most abominable spying-machine created in all of human history". I'm inclined to think that he was right about that, since U.S. 3 letter agencies seem to have bought special software that crawls sites like Facebook to collect as much data/information about each person as possible. -------- The EU did the right thing here. Suckerberg can't be trusted with anybody's privacy. -------- Now if only I could live to see the day when people voluntarily delete their profiles off Facebook, and use alternate services that aren't as intrusive...

    --
    Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
    1. Re:Julian Assange was right on Facebook... by confusedwiseman · · Score: 1

      What alternatives? Google+ isn't a viable option, email wouldn't be private as there was an earlier article about law enforcement bemoaning the requirement of a warrant to gain access to email. Almost any electronic medium is going to compromise privacy. What would Slash Dot readers suggest as a reasonable balance between privacy and the congregation of my friends. A tight tin-foil hat isn't necessary, as some of it could be considered "public" data, but I don't want to make myself too easy to be harvested and sold off to their cohorts.

    2. Re:Julian Assange was right on Facebook... by vlueboy · · Score: 1

      People just fade out of systems when something better comes along. I think the majority of those that actively delete their profiles on their way out do have things that they do not want misused. You may ascribe that to being slashdot geeks who wised up, or to having had trouble that showed them real life drama follows facebook activity or whatever. But it takes a pretty strong force stopping the inertia of convenience and addiction they are enjoying there. Even closing my slashdot account and being prevented from seeing all AC posts, headlines and everything else sure would pose a big roadblock against official closure in my part.

      It is not like myspace died because people woke up smart one day and explicitly shunned themselves from it. You can still look up their accounts on google. Same for friendster and other dead precursors.

  9. Was there EVER really privacy? by BlueCoder · · Score: 2

    We have the right to record things in public. That means we can freely follow and track other people. Pretty soon everyone with be walking around with a camera on their person. The camera will tie into a computer and will be able to take clues from the environment as well as to record everything that happens within a two day period. Where did I leave my keys? Just rewind...

    So are we going to take away the right to record in public? What happens when devices will be able to record directly from our brain activity? Is everyone going to have the equivalent of copyright to their own images? Is everyone going to be forced to forget everyone else and submit to memory wipe everyday as a result of a DMCA like forget notification?

    When it comes to location and tracking on that point we have to surrender. There is no way to put that genie back in the bottle. And to me when anyone in the pubic can do it I see no reason the government couldn't do it as well. That cat is simply out of the bag.

    1. Re:Was there EVER really privacy? by NSN+A392-99-964-5927 · · Score: 1
      --
      All cows eat grass!
    2. Re:Was there EVER really privacy? by misexistentialist · · Score: 1

      You relish the right to record and track other people...but in many places you don't have the right to conceal your own face! And by the time there are brain recording devices there will probably be better body cloaking options than a ski mask, though you won't be permitted to use them. The reality is whatever rights you have are just scraps that couldn't be taken away. Only government has the resources and privileges to fully implement global tracking, and government agents and members of the elite will be untraceable by, or invisible to, your little camera.

    3. Re:Was there EVER really privacy? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      You have the right to record in public, for your own private usage.
      You have no right to publish your recordings without the consent of the people you have recorded.
      But that is basically what facebook is doing ....

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  10. There are other problems by Teun · · Score: 1
    Recently I got a mail via Facebook from my sister asking me to join her.

    As I've always been suspicious of Facebook-style sites I would never do such.
    What made me really worried is the in the mail named persons I could get in touch with would I set up an account, a whole string of my private and business acquaintances all over the world were listed, how the HELL did they amass this on a non-member???
    Because I'm pretty sure my sister has not listed this string of acquaintances that are not even likely to know each other...

    I am sick of this CIA/KGB style site!

    --
    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  11. Re:Billions prolly an underestimate over the mille by wdef · · Score: 1

    It is most definitely at the forefront of privacy invasion, with the possible exception of California whose Attorney-General takes Californian privacy laws - the tightest in the US - seriously.

  12. its called cross checking by RobertLTux · · Score: 1

    on of the things Facebook likes to do is Yoink your address book/contacts list from your email service so i would bet that somebody on that list allowed the address book yoink and then got X folks to sign up and some of them allowed the Yoink (Facebook at this stage cross references and dedupes the addresses). Now that it has gotten to YOU Facebook has noticed that %list% has YOU listed.

    --
    Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
  13. Re:Billions prolly an underestimate over the mille by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I really don't care about a big evil corporation knowing where I've been, my religion, what I weigh, who I have sex with, etc. If anything, the more they know about me, the more likely that they will make products I want to buy.

    However, the government knowing all of those things is actually something to be concerned about.

    Funny, my view is the exact opposite. I'm shocked if I lose a private document and the government archives don't have a backup. On the other hand, I'm endlessly annoyed by all kinds of merchants trying to get under my skin all the time.

    My government is not out to get me. The corporations are.

  14. More than just the EU by andersh · · Score: 1

    No, it also applies in the countries that are part of the European Economic Area (EEA). That's the EU and most of EFTA. We're a few small countries, but we're not members of the EU. The FTA means the same laws apply within the EEA (27+3).

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Area

    1. Re:More than just the EU by Schmorgluck · · Score: 1

      I stand corrected. There are so many international organisations around here that it's hard to keep track of all of them and their attributions. The EU itself is already rather complicated.

      --
      There's nothing like $HOME
  15. Re:Billions prolly an underestimate over the mille by fa2k · · Score: 1

    My thoughts exactly. I really don't care about a big evil corporation knowing where I've been, my religion, what I weigh, who I have sex with, etc. If anything, the more they know about me, the more likely that they will make products I want to buy.

    However, the government knowing all of those things is actually something to be concerned about.

    The biggest problems seem to be 1) disclosure of information and 2) malicious action based on the information. In a democratic society, both companies and government have to follow the law, and there are serious repercussions if they don't.

    The potential for (1) is about the same for both, but the actions in (2) are worse for the government: they can put you in jail, while the worst thing companies can do is to collude to raise prices just for you or deny you some service. We're not discussing the actions, however, but the information itself. Companies can disclose incriminating information to government at will, using the police as its tool to do evil.

    It should be noted that there is a real difference: government can collect information by force (or by law), but you can often avoid tracking from companies. It can even deny others to do the same tracking (like in this story, though I'd say that data anlaysis and correlation is never the real problem). That is a separate discussion, though

  16. More than one meaning by andersh · · Score: 1

    That's both true and just part of the whole truth.

    While it may be legally required in the EU, it may also be required in the EEA (EU+3). Even then it is often applied in all of the European countries (EU/EEA/non-EU), it's easier for companies that way (see Facebook).

  17. Until they get caught by Stan92057 · · Score: 1

    Until they get caught not doing what they were told to the last time this time.

    --
    Jack of all trades,master of none
  18. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  19. Re:Billions prolly an underestimate over the mille by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    by being ruthless in protecting the privacy of consumers, while implementing far worse privacy breaches on their own citizens.
    Care to point some out?
    Seems you are better informed than me, which privacy breaches are the european governments planning?

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  20. Re:Billions prolly an underestimate over the mille by Aqualung812 · · Score: 1
    --
    Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
  21. Re:Billions prolly an underestimate over the mille by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Before refering other people to google you should google yourself.
    The search terms you proposed don't bring up anything relevant, YFYI.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.