According to its own information, Facebook is abolishing the face recognition function with which users can be automatically tagged on photos. Stored data for identifying the faces of more than a billion people are to be deleted. The step should take place in November, announced Meta, as the Facebook parent company recently called itself. In society there are concerns about the use of facial recognition technologies – and regulators are still in the process of developing rules for it, it was said to justify. The photo app Instagram, which is also part of Meta, is not mentioned in the communication.
The decision of the group is also likely to be related to the headwinds that Facebook blew for the function. Most recently, users had to give their express consent for their names to be shown automatically to Facebook friends in photos. In Europe in particular, the face recognition network encountered resistance from privacy advocates.
But there was also trouble in the USA. Facebook fined $ 650 million following a class action lawsuit. It was about the function in which Facebook suggested users based on facial recognition which friends they could tag on photos – without their consent. The plaintiffs had argued in the lengthy process that this function in the US state of Illinois was against the law. And the software that has been in use since 2010 also played an important role in the proceedings surrounding the data scandal in connection with the Cambridge Analytica company. It ended up with a record $ 5 billion fine for the network.
Meta now says at the end of the function: “Any new technology can bring benefits and concerns, and we want to strike the right balance. In the case of facial recognition, its long-term role in society needs to be discussed openly and among those who are most vulnerable to it We will continue to participate in this conversation and work with the civil society groups and regulators who are leading this discussion. “
Facebook wants to continue working on the technology
However, the announced step does not mean the end of face recognition on Facebook. They continue to see possible uses for the technology, for example for logging into an account or unlocking a device. Work will continue on this – with due transparency for users, the company promises.
With the setting of the function, names would no longer be displayed in previous photos, emphasizes Meta. Nothing will change for users who have not activated the function, as no facial recognition data would have to be deleted.
The decision at Facebook comes at a time when the network and the global corporation behind it are working hard on a new image – which is shown not least by the renaming of the parent company to Meta. Facebook has recently been increasingly targeted not only by data protectionists. The parliaments, in the USA and in Europe, are also watching the company more and more critically, be it questions about taxes to be paid or Facebook’s insufficient fight against disinformation and hatred on the Internet.
Last but not least, an ex-employee put pressure on Facebook: She brought internal documents to light, according to which the group, among other things, knew about a negative impact of its services such as Instagram on young users, but did not act. The 37-year-old Frances Haugen became known as the whistleblower behind the so-called Facebook files and has now also testified before the US Senate.