Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced that it will stop using automatic facial recognition software. With this software, the ‘new’ company could automatically recognize faces and link them to the relevant people. Now that Meta says it will stop doing this, it will soon no longer be possible for users to recognize people on photos and/or videos.
How does it work?
Users could always give Facebook approval to save a profile of their face. If you had given permission, you would then be placed in a database of Facebook. In this database, Facebook divided your face into different zones. Algorithms in this looked at the features of your face. For example, we looked at the distance between your eyes, the distance between your two ears and the size of your philtrum.
All these characteristics were recorded in a database. With all this information, Facebook was able to, and currently still can, recognize people very well and easily. This makes it possible, for example, to tag people in photos, to find photos in which you appear or to receive a message if someone posts a photo that shows you.
Controversial system
However, the technology surrounding Facebook’s automatic facial recognition, or the Face Recognition system, has been controversial for years. Various agencies and experts argue that the software could violate people’s privacy and that rules for using the software are often unclear. Meta indicates that this is one of the reasons to stop. Especially the lack of clear rules around the software is mentioned as one of the main reasons.
In the coming weeks, Meta will stop using automatic facial recognition. All faces in the database are deleted by the company. According to Meta, these are facial profiles of more than a billion users.
Extensive article on facial recognition software
In the coming week there will be an article online in which we will explain in more detail how facial recognition software works and what the advantages and disadvantages are. So keep an eye on Androidworld.
– Thanks for information from Androidworld.