Goal: Facebook removes facial recognition from its platform in photo tagging | Technology

Goodbye to facial recognition in the largest social network in the world. Facebook announced this Tuesday that it will stop using this system on its platform, which used to automatically tag users in photos, videos and memories, but it will continue to be used in other functions. The company has also said in a statement that it will erase the biometric records of 1 billion users. The announcement was made by Meta, the parent of Mark Zuckerberg’s network, whose new name was recently released in the media out of a reputational crisis after weeks of leaks and revelations about how the company operates.

“This represents one of the biggest changes in the use of facial recognition technology in history. More than a third of daily users have opted for this tool and are recognized. Its elimination will result in the deletion of face templates of more than one billion people, ”the company said in a statement. The decision required “careful consideration” and was made as part of a company-wide policy. The social network has 2,800 million users and will proceed to eliminate the information of those who had this function activated. There will be no change for those who did not have it enabled.

Despite his decision, Meta makes it clear in the statement that he believes in the benefits of the “powerful tool.” “We have seen many places where facial recognition is highly valued by people on the platform,” reports the company, using the blind as an example, who can access descriptions in 4% of the images and photographs where their friends are tagged. Facebook will continue to use facial recognition for some cases, including accessing blocked accounts or verifying the identity of users in financial applications.

The company, however, has admitted the “growing concerns” that exist about the use of this technology. This has been one of the alerts launched for years by activists and advocates of privacy on the Internet. “There is much concern about the place that recognition technology occupies in society, and regulators are still in the process of determining a set of laws that governs its use,” the text states.

Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM had already made similar decisions recently. Jeff Bezos’ company declared a one-year moratorium on the sale of its facial recognition technology to law enforcement. This was adopted at a time of social unrest and with various Black Lives Matter protests raging across the country against police brutality, initiated in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minnesota. In May 2021, the company extended this decision without a deadline.

Human rights defenders have linked this tool to some unfair arrests, in addition to loss of privacy. This has led some cities to ban the use of facial recognition to search for suspects. San Francisco was the first city to suspend its use in 2019.

Meta’s decision comes preceded by weeks of revelations to the secrets of the operation of the giant created by Zuckerberg. Frances Haugen, a former employee of the social network, became the deep throat that made transparent the way the company manipulates teenagers on its photography platform, Instagram, and how moderators tolerated violent content around the world to extract more interactions on Facebook. The scandal began in September with a series of internal document disclosures by The Wall Street Journal, it followed with an interview on a prime-time show and followed with scandalous testimony before a committee of the United States Senate and the British Parliament.

This series of revelations clouded the announcement of the presentation of the metaverse, a commitment by the company to a virtual world that will be accessed with special glasses and where user avatars can share with friends, make purchases and stage talks that are held in some company services, such as WhatsApp.

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