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July 26, 2011

Facebook Making Facial Recognition Function Easier to Opt Out Of

By Tracey E. Schelmetic, TMCnet Contributor

Facial recognition software, while all marvelously twenty-first century, creeps some people out in a big way, as companies that have implemented it are beginning to find out.

Earlier this year, social networking site Facebook implemented a facial recognition solution ostensibly to help people “tag (News - Alert)” their photographs better. (The application can automatically recognize who is in the photo and tag them automatically.)



The technology scans photos that are uploaded to Facebook (News - Alert), compares faces in those photos with previous pictures, then tries to match faces and suggest name tags, reports Business Insider. When a match is found, Facebook alerts the person uploading the photos and invites them to tag it (identify the person in the photo by name).

Not everybody liked the convenience. Privacy groups complained, and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen came calling, sending a letter to the company in June informing it that the application invaded users' privacy.

Today, Facebook has announced that it will make the function easier to turn off for people who feel it's just a little too Jason Bourne for their Facebook profile. The company has run ads telling members about the feature and offering instructions about how to opt out.

“People across the country using Facebook will be more aware of our personalized privacy settings, and how they can be used to benefit their experience on the site,” said Tim Sparapani, director of public policy at Facebook. “We hope that people on Facebook will find the results to be helpful and useful.”

Jepsen is satisfied, he said in a statement today.

“Facebook has made significant changes that will provide better service and greater privacy protection to its users, not only in Connecticut, but across the country,” said Jepsen. “The company has been cooperative and diligent in its response.”

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Tracey Schelmetic is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Tracey's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell
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