Facebook flashes ramped-up face-recog tech. Try not to freak out

In an effort to make facial recognition technology more appealing to members of its clicky commerce club, social ad network Facebook on Tuesday said it will begin notifying people when they appear in the pictures posted by other people, sometimes. Facebook already offers a related form of notification for those tagged in other …

[Bob Dole (tm)]

Wasn't FB wanting people in Australia to upload nude photos of themselves in order to prevent said photos from being made public?

TBH, I don't find this that scary. Rather, I'd like to be notified if FB detects someone has uploaded a photo of me somewhere. Also, quite frankly, I've long given up on the idea of any privacy when out and about anyway. There are cameras absolutely everywhere.

[Anonymous Coward]

'global on/off switch'

Another thing to disable. The less time spent on the FB cesspit the better. Can someone share the exact location of the global off switch please?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 'global on/off switch'

...no, I'm taking your advice :)

[Anonymous Coward]

'...no, I'm taking your advice :)'

I hear ya... I'm long de-addicted myself.

This info is to help out family, friends etc.

[Anonymous Coward]

A global off switch that is only availalbe to "Users"

AKA, people who agreed to permanently waive broad sections of their rights away in return for gaining access to a privacy settings page that Facehugger Inc can change at will, and includes terms that the company can change at will. They can and will constantly Opt-In your account to things on a regular basis even if you don't log into the service after opting out.

Big surprise that Canada and the EU have spanked them for this. Another useful observation is how the sky hasn't fallen on either of them as a result.

Interesting question, what happens when an account created outside Canada or he EU starts posting and tagging pictures of people IN the EU?

[Anonymous Coward]

The real Elephant in the room

How does Facebook get away with forcing the 'banner' profile PHOTO to be publicly visible? Where is the EU here? Oh wait, worldwide regulation of Facebook (excl America) largely operates out of a Centra in rural Ireland:

-----------

https://qz.com/162791/how-a-bureaucrat-in-a-struggling-country-at-the-edge-of-europe-found-himself-safeguarding-the-worlds-data/

https://qz.com/993995/how-facebooks-fb-sheryl-sandberg-personally-lobbied-irish-prime-minister-enda-kenny-as-shown-by-2014-emails-published-in-the-irish-independent/

http://www.thejournal.ie/data-protection-commissioner-new-office-1488473-May2014/

[Captain DaFt]

One more data confirmation point for Facebook

"Someone has posted a picture, please verify that it is of you so that we may more accurately mine more data about you from the picture's contents and meta-data."

[Brewster's Angle Grinder]

Re: One more data confirmation point for Facebook

Psst. People are talking about you behind your back. Why don't you see what they're saying?

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook Required

Opting out is only possible for Facebook accounts. Otherwise, all other accounts, and the rest of the entire world are ass-u-me'd to have "opted in".

P.S. Expect BIG fee$ paid to Facebook for data searches of non-account holders' personal information.

[Lysenko]

"...or reach out to the person who posted the photo if you have concerns about it"

I'm only likely to "reach out" to someone if I intend to grab them by the neck - for example, in the case of people using the expression "reach out" when they mean "contact", "ask", "email" or "speak to".

[Magani]

Re: "...or reach out to the person who posted the photo if you have concerns about it"

The only folks allowed to use the term should be the Four Tops.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have / am a

Doppleganger of at least one or a few people. Been offered money in the street as they thought they owed me a tenner. The look on the poor kids face when they were confused how dad could be in two places at once. Etc.

So I am not expecting a smooth "service" :(

[Dan McIntyre]

Personally not bothered by this. In fact I'd love to see some photos in particular if it were possible - back in October my wheelchair and I took a gondola ride in Venice and hundreds of people on bridges and alongside the canals were snapping away at me - I'd love to see those pictures.

[Mystic Megabyte]

A load of punts!

...other people that searched for gondolas also were interested in buying canals.

[Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese]

likens worries to those expressed about the social impact of photography toward the end of the 19th century.

Like worrying that someone taking your photo is going to steal your soul? The way users get their lives harvested by the social media companies, I think users' souls have already been stolen.

[Wibble]

GDPR

When the GDPR finally comes into effect, will faecesbook et al be obliged to delete the biometric hashes?

How can one prove that they have done this?

The tagging's done by some fb member associating the picture to another fb account. Do they keep unassigned (orphaned?) hashes just in case? Isn't this against the spirit of GDPR?

[handleoclast]

Anti-recognition measures already taken

I admit it, I have a Farcebook account. Purely to see what WileyFox are up to and then complain about it, since they use Farcebook for their announcements instead of using their own website.

Over the months, Farcebook kept nagging me to upload a profile pic. I finally complied. After having taken some anti-recognition measures.

First, the account is not in my real name.

Second, I carefully avoided having my hair cut or shaving for 20 years. Let's see your algorithms figure out where the tops and bottoms of my ears are, or where my chin is.

Third, the picture I uploaded was of my cat.

Fourth, the cat died four years ago.

One of my neighbours might recognize me from the picture of my cat, since it was originally her cat. However, the pic is taken from an unusual angle. And the neighbour died over a year ago.

So I think I'm pretty safe from recognition.

No icon indicating a joke, because everything stated above is absolutely true.

[Patrick R]

Facebook declined to comment

Of course they did. Fully agree. This is none of your business and you should respect their privacy.

[Alistair]

Once a person turns off face recognition we delete one copy of their template completely," Facebook's spokesperson said. "The template is the reference we use to recognize you in photos. Without the template we can not recognize you in photos."

FTFY.

[Flakk]

Channeling Dr. House

Luckily, there's an off switch... to placate lawmakers?

"There's not an off switch. There's never an off switch."

[Gene Cash]

Facebook off-switches do not work

So back when I was stupid enough to have a FB account, I got bombarded by "your friend is playing [game] and needs [action] from you!" shite.

There was an off switch for this, which was apparently totally ignored, as these messages never stopped. This was a major reason I left.

So what assurance do we have that this works? I'll take that to be "none"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Facebook off-switches do not work

@ Gene.

That was coming from Zynga, probably. There is a difference:

Facebook - The sweaty, unwashed armpit of the internet

Zynga - a fungal infection in the same armpit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Feetbook?

I recently uploaded some photos of a recent Christmas party, where I played Santa. Feetbook duly drew a rectangle around the face of a young lady sitting on Santa's lap, for me to tag. Feetbook also drew a rectangle around my right foot, then waited for me to tag it. Fair enough I guess, my profile photo is of my feet. Though I am impressed, my profile photo is of bare feet, taken from above, the Santa photo was taken from the front, and I'm wearing sandals in it. Seriously great face recognition AI that can recognise feet from any angle, in any footwear.