Facebook will shut down its facial recognition system on the platform over the coming weeks. Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has announced the decision to delete more than one billion people’s individual ‘faceprints’ owing to the many concerns about using the technology that identifies users in photos and videos. The facial recognition software was introduced on the world’s largest social media platform in 2010.
“We’re shutting down the Face Recognition system on Facebook. People who’ve opted in will no longer be automatically recognized in photos and videos and we will delete more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates”, as stated in an update on use of face recognition issued by Jerome Pesenti, VP of Artificial Intelligence.
Facebook has been under constant pressure and scrutiny from the political, legal, and regulatory communities about the principles of using the technology that automatically detects users in photos and videos,
The statement by Jerome Pesenti declares: “Regulators are still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use. Amid this ongoing uncertainty, we believe that limiting the use of facial recognition to a narrow set of use cases is appropriate.”
The company that has revealed its new name as Meta last week has said that thanks to their decision to limit the use of facial recognition in all their products (More than a third of Facebook’s daily active users have opted into our Face Recognition setting), the Face Recognition setting will no longer be automatically identified in photos and videos. They are deleting the facial recognition template that identifies them. They will be deleting more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition patterns over the coming weeks.
Another aspect of this decision is the impact it will have on Automatic Alt Text (AAT), which creates image descriptions for blind and visually-impaired users. After this large-scale deletion, AAT descriptions will no longer include the names of people identified in photos. The option of getting automatically notified when users appear in photos/video posters by others will also go away with this change. The company has also added that it encourages users to tag posts manually.
As reported by Reuters, Adam Schwartz, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is quoted stating it as a “notable moment in the national turning-away from face recognition.”
The Face Recognition setting page of Facebook reads, “When you turn your face recognition setting on, we create your template and use it to compare to other photos, videos and other places where the camera is used (like live video) to recognize if you appear in that content. Keep in mind, we don’t share your template with anyone.” Though it gives assurance the use of this innovative software has fuelled privacy concerns, government inquiries, a class-action grievance, and regulatory woes.
All these have finally led to the removal of this decade-old facial recognition system. Moreover, Facebook has not dismissed the use of this technology in other products, saying it still considers it as a “powerful tool” for identity verification.
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