Facebook is shutting down its facial recognition system.
Facebook will no longer automatically detect your photos and videos for the coming weeks.
Facial recognition system identifies people who appear in photos, videos posted by users.
Facebook will no longer automatically detect your photos and videos as social media is shutting down its controversial face recognition system. People who opted for the face recognition setting will not be automatically recognized in pictures. Facebook has said that it will completely remove the facial recognition template used to identify them. Getting rid of the facial recognition system it introduced 10 years ago is the first strategic move by the social media giant after changing its original name to Meta. The facility has long been criticized by the society’s watchdog over its privacy loopholes, misuse by government officials, etc.
Facial recognition system identifies people who appear in photos, videos posted by users. Facebook showed a prompt asking users to tag themselves in a picture uploaded by their Facebook friends, acquaintances. While users may not notice the adverse effects of the feature, cyber security experts have always raised the alarm about how the feature can be misused by the government.
“Every new technology brings with it the potential of both profit and concern, and we want to find the right balance. In terms of facial recognition, it’s openly on its long-term role in society,” said Jerome Pecenti, META’s Vice President of Artificial Intelligence. What needs to be debated, and between the people who will be most affected by this. We will continue to engage in that conversation and continue to work with the civil society groups and regulators who are leading this discussion.” He reiterated that the company sees the facial recognition system as an important tool but does not want to ignore its concerns.
What does it mean to turn off the facial recognition system?
Facebook still believes that facial recognition systems are valuable but hasn’t turned a blind eye to concerns raised by security experts. The services it enables will be removed in the coming weeks, as will the setting allowing people to opt in to the system. In the coming weeks, Facebook will no longer automatically recognize people’s faces if they appear in memories, photos or videos. This was an opt-in feature, so users will no longer be able to turn on face recognition for suggested tagging or see suggested tags with their names in photos and videos. Facebook now encourages users to tag their friends, acquaintances. Post tags manually.
The shutdown of Facebook’s face scan system will also remove the personal facial recognition templates of more than a billion people.
Facebook’s removal of the facial recognition system will have a significant impact on Automatic Alt Text (AAT), a technology that Facebook uses to create image descriptions for people who are blind or visually impaired. The Facebook blog shows that AAT technology automatically identifies people in about 4 percent of photos. However, AAT technology will still be able to identify how many people are in a photo, but will no longer attempt to identify who each person is using facial recognition. Apart from this, there will be no change in the system, Facebook will continue to work closely with the blind and visually impaired