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Facebook Re-enables Tag Suggestions Face-Recognition Feature In the US

Posted by Soulskill on from the trying-to-be-helpful-in-a-really-creepy-way dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Facebook has brought back its photo Tag Suggestions feature to the U.S. after temporarily suspending it last year to make some technical improvements. Facebook says it has re-enabled it so that its users can use facial recognition 'to help them easily identify a friend in a photo and share that content with them.' Facebook first rolled out the face recognition feature across the U.S. in late 2010. The company eventually pushed photo Tag Suggestions to other countries in June 2011, but in the US there was quite a backlash. Yet Facebook doesn't appear to have made any privacy changes to the feature: it's still on by default."

7 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. I guess all those natives were right by eksith · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A camera really can steal your soul.

    Facebook is a good idea taken way too far and a userbase that refuses to acknowledge that fact. If we've learned anything from history, people are more than willing to go along with anything that even includes physical assault for the sake of recognition. A little violation of privacy is no sweat.

    --
    If computers were people, I'd be a misanthrope.
    1. Re:I guess all those natives were right by icebike · · Score: 5, Insightful

      having your face recognized in a photo that you already appear in, to people who already know you

      Such naivety! One has to marvel!

      Within a couple years every face will be identifiable on line in every picture you take whether or not you know the person or not, even if that person does not have a facebook account.

      Face recognition plus Graph Search means nobody is safe from they prying eyes of facebook.
      If the FBI/CIA/NSA/Scotland Yard tried to set this up, world plus dog would be howling in protest.

      (Oh, and before you spout any privacy protections, let me offer a loud scoff of derision in your general direction: HA!)

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    2. Re:I guess all those natives were right by Digicaf · · Score: 4, Informative

      Except that it's not. People can, and will, tag you in a photo without your general awareness. I believe you can even tag people without an account.

    3. Re:I guess all those natives were right by oxdas · · Score: 4, Informative

      But Facebook has already admitted to creating "shadow accounts" for people who have not opted in. They still track their behavior through like buttons around the internet unless you surf with noscript, etc.They still try to learn faces, habits, etc. and they also sell the information.

    4. Re:I guess all those natives were right by sjames · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's not the problem. The problem is when it becomes searchable. Your potential new employer does a search and comes up with that picture from a high school party you didn't know was taken. You know, that party where you knew exactly one person out of the 50 or so there? The one that, as you are about to find out, was also attended by the person who later went on to become a notorious drug dealer (who you never even noticed). Sorry sir, BozoBank international doesn't hire people who party with known felons.

      Wouldn't you have preferred to remain just that anonymous guy sitting in the background looking like he's about to bail on the lamest party ever?

    5. Re:I guess all those natives were right by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Informative

      It goes far, far beyond even what you're thinking:
      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2187801/Were-watching-The-camera-recognise-Facebook-picture-time-walk-shop.html

      Facebook is putting their own cameras in public with built in facial recognition software. They will track everywhere you go, what you do while you're there, what you buy, what you eat, what you look at and don't buy. Every single thing you do will be logged in their databases, and then sold to... well... pretty much everyone. How much do you want to bet their biggest customer will be the federal government?

      It appears that Orwell was off by about 30 years when he wrote 1984.

  2. Activists should be most concerned by Midnight_Falcon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the FBI had access to Facebook's database during the days of COINTELPRO, it is doubtful the American Civil Rights movement would have ever occurred.

    Facial recognition is an amazingly powerful tool for law enforcement when it comes to political adversaries -- imagine a scenario where local police and the FBI could just pop a photo into the special "Law Enforcement" console on Facebook, and find out who the person is, who their friends are, what their likes/dislikes are, what they order online (what kind of ads are targeted), etc.

    It's also sad that most young activists these days are all over Facebook and have been giving it all their information since they turned 13 (or earlier if they just ignored that 13+ stuff), so by the time they become involved, the government has an easy way to find out literally everything about their personal lives. Just upload a picture of them snapped at some political rally, and voila!

    The problem is Facebook is so addictive, I see such compulsive behavior clicking photos, and when you block facebook on networks, users downright have panic attacks.

    Sounds like George Orwell may have been right: We love big brother.