Facebook will delete facial recognition data of more than a billion users

Just days after rebranding itself, Facebook announced plans to delete a troubling batch of data the world’s largest social network has collected about more than a billion individuals.

In a blog post yesterday, Facebook’s newly-named parent company Meta explained that it would shut down its facial recognition systems and delete a huge collection of more than a billion people. Face recognition templates are used to match faces with photos and videos. The social network Facebook will also no longer do that pairing in the future for users who have previously opted in.

Facebook introduced facial recognition in 2010 to automatically tag usernames for photos. The feature was automatically enabled at launch, and Facebook only explicitly introduced an opt-in system to users in 2019.

“Looking ahead, we still see facial recognition as a powerful tool, such as for people needing to verify their identity or to prevent fraud and impersonation, ” said Facebook Vice President of Facebook. artificial intelligence Jerome Pesenti writes in a blog post. ” But the many specific cases where facial recognition can be useful need to be weighed against growing concerns about the use of the technology in general.”

Pesenti noted an “uncertain” environment for facial recognition technology, in its decision to limit Meta’s facial recognition to a narrower set of applications.

Facebook has collected data on the faces of more than 1 billion users.

At this point, Facebook’s facial recognition system is probably in more trouble than it should be. Many proposals to regulate online privacy in the US are still hypothetical, especially at the federal level, but existing laws could complicate the use of facial recognition technology. Among them, there is an Illinois privacy law called the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) that allows it to apply to a number of large technology companies.

Earlier this year, Facebook was ordered to pay $650 million in a BIPA settlement for using facial recognition to identify photos of Illinois residents without their consent. Controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI is also currently facing a BIPA lawsuit in the state. The FTC also cited Facebook’s use of facial recognition in a $5 billion fine with the company over privacy-related fraud.

Facebook’s decision to turn its back on facial recognition is an iconic gesture, given the brand’s move into the metaverse. Concerns about Facebook’s censorship and privacy failures don’t have much of an impact on Facebook’s business, but public mistrust and unclear regulations will lead the company to a new phase, rebranding or not.

With the new name Meta, the company is trying to reposition itself as a “trusted manager” for the next internet era. Therefore, trying to remove some of the notoriety from previous privacy scandals is being seen as a wise move.

Refer to techcrunch