Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Facebook's New Captcha Test: 'Upload A Clear Photo of Your Face' (wired.com)

Posted by msmash on from the yay-or-nay dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Facebook may soon ask you to "upload a photo of yourself that clearly shows your face," to prove you're not a bot. The company is using a new kind of captcha to verify whether a user is a real person. According to a screenshot of the identity test shared on Twitter on Tuesday and verified by Facebook, the prompt says: "Please upload a photo of yourself that clearly shows your face. We'll check it and then permanently delete it from our servers." The process is automated, including identifying suspicious activity and checking the photo. To determine if the account is authentic, Facebook looks at whether the photo is unique.

5 of 302 comments (clear)

  1. Obviously by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Informative

    They can't determine if a photo is unique unless they don't really delete the photo from their servers. (They probably keep a "fingerprint" of the photo, which would be the most valuable part for spying on people anyway.)

  2. Re:WHY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because they want to build a comprehensive and, more importantly, up to date image of what you look like for their facial recognition software.

    I'm sure there's some guy out there who gets a massive boner when he thinks about with one hi-res crowd shot of people they can pull sophisticated buying demographics to sell to advertisers.

  3. Hi, we've lied repeatedly before but this time... by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Jeez.

    Facebook has been caught lying and engaging in dubious behavior dozens of times and the founder says you have no right to privacy (but zealously protects his own privacy).

    Wake UP!

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  4. Facebook closed my account over this by cstacy · · Score: 5, Interesting
    My FB account had about six "friends" on it: immediate family members. Didn't ever post anything or upload any information, just looked at photos they posted, pressed Like sometimes, and occasional IMs. I got this "upload a photo" roadblock, although it also said it was going to compare it to my Profile photo to make sure it was me. I didn't have any Profile photo, of course, so that's bullshit. Tried logging in three more times over the course of three weeks. Yesterday tried again, but the account has gone from suspended to terminated.

    They said it was for "suspicious activity". (Of which of course there was none.)
    I say it was because I failed to upload content for them to monetize.
    Interesting business decision.

  5. First My Phone Number, Now This? by Tempest_2084 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Facebook kept badgering me for years to give them my phone number 'just in case' to which I repeatedly said no. Finally they stopped bugging me about it and all was good for a few weeks. Then I got a new notice that said 'help verify that this is your number and keep your account up to date'. Lo and behold that was indeed my phone number, but I never gave it to them. I don't know where they scraped it from, but they got it. That left me creeped out for a long time and I considered closing my account. In the end I kept it, but I watched what I posted and really dropped my usage. If I get this prompt I'll drop it completely. I'm not a social media junkie, so I'll live. In fact the only reason I'm still on it is for a few interest groups that I'm involved with who moved to FB (terrible decision) and so my family can tell me who died and who had a kid. Both of which I could live without.