Facebook announced Tuesday that it will be removing facial recognition from its platform , citing growing concerns from users and regulators about security and privacy .
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The social network, whose parent company is now called Meta, said it would delete more than 1 billion individual facial scan dataas a result of the change. The facial recognition system was used by about a third of Facebook's daily active users (more than 600 million accounts).
Facebook will no longer automatically recognize people's faces in photos or videos, the company said in a post. The change, however, will also affect the automatic alt text technology the company uses to describe images for people who are blind or visually impaired. Facebook's services that rely on facial recognition systems will be phased out in the coming weeks.
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“There are many concerns about recognition technology in society, and regulators are still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use,” the company said. “Amid this ongoing uncertainty, we believe it is good to limit the use of facial recognition.”
The end of the use of the facial recognition system is part of "a general move by the company away from this type of broad recognition," Facebook's post said.
However, Meta said it is considering enabling facial recognition technology for situations where people need to verify their identity or prevent fraud or impersonation.
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Facebook has been in the spotlight lately, following the revelations of former employee Frances Haugen . However, this has not been for the better. The social networking platform has been accused of indifference to the security, privacy and well-being of its users
Both users and regulators have expressed concerns about privacy, leading Facebook and its parent company Meta to take steps, such as shutting down its facial recognition system.
Source: CNBC
