Adam Kos In the coming weeks, Meta will turn off Facebook's facial recognition system as part of a company-wide move to limit the use of the technology in its products. So if you have allowed the network to do so, they will no longer tag you in photos or videos.
At the same time, Meta removes the facial recognition template that was used for identification. According to the statement on blog company, more than a third of Facebook's daily active users have signed up for facial recognition. The removal of individual facial recognition templates will thus result in the removal of information for more than a billion people in the world.
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Two sides of a coin
While this may sound like a step forward with regard to the privacy of network users, of course it also comes with some not-so-favorable circumstances. This is primarily AAT text (Automatic Alt Text), which uses advanced artificial intelligence to create image descriptions for the blind and partially sighted, so it tells them when they or one of their friends is in the image. They will now learn everything about what is in the picture, except who is in it.
And why does Meta actually turn off face recognition? This is because the regulatory authorities have still not set clear rules for the use of this technology. At the same time, of course, there is the issue of privacy threats, possible unwanted tracking of people, etc. Every beneficial function has, of course, a second dark side. However, the feature will still be present in some respect.
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Future use
These are mainly services that help people gain access to a locked account, the ability to verify their identity in financial products or unlock personal devices. These are places where facial recognition has broad value to people and is socially acceptable when deployed carefully. However, all in full transparency and the user's own control over whether his face is automatically recognized somewhere.
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The company will now try to focus on the fact that the recognition takes place directly in the device and does not require communication with an external server. It is therefore the same principle that is used to unlock, for example, iPhones. So the current shutdown of the feature means that the services it enables will be removed in the coming weeks, as well as the settings that allow people to log into the system.
So for any Facebook user, this means the following:
- You will no longer be able to turn on automatic face recognition for tagging, nor will you see a suggested tag with your name on auto-tagged photos and videos. You will still be able to mark manually.
- After the change, AAT will still be able to recognize how many people are in a photo, but will no longer attempt to identify who is present.
- If you have signed up for automatic face recognition, the template used to identify you will be deleted. If you are not logged in, then any template is not available and no change will happen to you.
