{"id":362345,"date":"2021-11-03T17:45:45","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T14:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-facebook-wants-to-forget-your-face\/"},"modified":"2021-11-03T17:45:45","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T14:45:45","slug":"why-facebook-wants-to-forget-your-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-facebook-wants-to-forget-your-face\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why Facebook Wants to Forget Your Face"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Why Facebook<\/a> Wants to Forget Your Face”<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Facebook recently announced it\u2019s changing the name of the company to Meta, but that\u2019s not the only big change. Facebook is no longer using facial recognition to tag photos and is deleting over a billion people\u2019s facial data. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who\u2019ve opted in will no longer be automatically recognized in photos and videos, and we will delete more than a billion people\u2019s individual facial recognition templates,\u201d\u00a0Jerome Pesenti, VP of Artificial Intelligence, said in a Meta blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The social media giant has offered an opt-in facial recognition tool since 2019, and it\u2019s pretty incredible just from a functionality standpoint. Someone posts a picture with you in it, and Facebook notices that you\u2019re there and suggests you tag yourself in it.<\/p>\n

On the surface, it seems like a simple and convenient feature, but it means a single company has a detailed facial recognition database of much of the world\u2019s population. Sure, Meta says it\u2019s an opt-in feature, but that doesn\u2019t change the fact that its a private entity with so much data.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> How Does Facial Recognition Work?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the blog post,\u00a0Pesenti said, \u201cThere are many concerns about the place of facial recognition technology<\/a> in society, and regulators are still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use. Amid this ongoing uncertainty, we believe that limiting the use of facial recognition to a narrow set of use cases is app<\/a>ropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sounds like Meta is worried about government regulation regarding facial recognition, and the company is taking a proactive approach by removing the data and not gathering new facial information.<\/p>\n

Facebook settled a lawsuit in Illinois in February 2021 accusing Facebook\u2019s tagging tech of violating Illinois\u2019 biometric privacy law. It saw the company agree to pay\u00a0$650 million<\/a> for allegedly using\u00a0face-tagging data without user permissions.\u00a0This is just in one state, and there could easily be other states and countries that pass similar laws in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pleased to have reached a settlement so we can move past this matter, which is in the best interest of our community and our shareholders,\u201d Facebook said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Meta also cited the reminded us of the positives offered by facial recognition in the post. \u201cFor example, the ability to tell a blind or visually impaired user that the person in a photo on their News<\/a> Feed is their high school friend, or former colleague, is a valuable feature that makes our platforms more accessible. But it also depends on an underlying technology that attempts to evaluate the faces in a photo to match them with those kept in a database of people who opted-in. The changes we\u2019re announcing today involve a company-wide move away from this kind of broad identification, and toward narrower forms of personal authentication,\u201d\u00a0Pesenti said.<\/p>\n

The change will also make it so the social network can no longer use\u00a0Automatic Alt Text, a technology used to create image descriptions for blind or visually impaired people. Clearly, the company feels like this is worth the tradeoff, as it wouldn\u2019t make a move like this without really weighing both sides.<\/p>\n

While those sound like a practical use of the technology, the company believes that outside pressure and the privacy issues with a company having that much facial data isn\u2019t worth the tradeoff.<\/p>\n

What about Face ID on iPhone? Meta acknowledged the difference between on-device facial recognition and a database of faces. \u201cFacial recognition can be particularly valuable when the technology operates privately on a person\u2019s own devices. This method of on-device facial recognition, requiring no communication of face data with an external server, is most commonly deployed today in the systems used to unlock smartphones,\u201d the blog post reads.<\/p>\n

In the end, Meta looks to be getting ahead of regulation and is responding to a lawsuit. Paying a $650 million settlement to one state is unpleasant, but if future states and countries were to sue the company over the same matter, it could be catastrophic for it. While we\u2019d love to believe that Meta just had a change of heart and decided to put the privacy of its users first, that doesn\u2019t seem likely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n