To improve individual privacy for its users, Meta has removed its facial recognition software from Facebook. No more facial recognition means no more automatic tags.
The company intends to delete any stored facial identification software that would associate someone's name with a template image. According to a Meta press release by the VP of artificial intelligence, nearly one-third of Facebook users opted-in to the facial recognition software, including blind and visually-impaired populations who may use the software to generate descriptions of friends and family.
Despite this policy change, the company is still considering future use of facial recognition software for privacy checks and to avoid fraud.
The company arrived at the decision following industry uncertainty and public concern on facial recognition technology. According to the company, "the many specific instances where facial recognition can be helpful need to be weighed against growing concerns about the use of this technology as a whole. There are many concerns about the place of facial recognition technology in society, and regulators are still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use."
Meta is responding to the industry concern with a shift from "broad identification" to "personal authentication." They endorse facial technology that maintains user privacy, restricted to an individual's device, not an external server — such as facial logins on smartphones.
According to Meta's press release, users can expect the following changes on Facebook in coming weeks:
- The technology will no longer automatically recognize if people’s faces appear in Memories, photos or videos.
- People will no longer be able to turn on face recognition for suggested tagging or see a suggested tag with their name in photos and videos they may appear in. Note: Users are still encouraged to tag posts manually.
- This change will also impact Automatic Alt Text (AAT), a technology used to create image descriptions for people who are blind or visually impaired. AAT currently identifies people in about 4 percent of photos. 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 each person is using facial recognition. Otherwise, AAT will continue to function normally, and Meta intends to work closely with the blind and visually impaired community on technologies to continually improve AAT. Users can learn more about what these changes mean for people who use AAT on the Facebook Accessibility page.
Gloss