Facebook Facial Recognition Raises New Privacy Concerns

c0lo writes "Now might be a good time to check your Facebook privacy settings as many Facebook users are reporting that the site has enabled the face recognition in the last few days without giving users any notice. Once again, Facebook seems to be sharing personal information by default, instead on users having to 'opt-in'. Some other comments and an interesting reaction from Google and how to get around/disable it."

Facebook account for IT pros?

[AtomicJake]

This could also be a Slashdot poll: How many IT pros (Web designers do not count, sorry) do you know who have a FB account?
Personally, I do not know any ...

Re:And the downside is?

[second_coming]

The correct way of implementing this would be the next time you log in it asks whether it is ok to turn this feature on (with a proper explanation of the pros and cons of doing so). That way the average user of Facebook would be able to make an informed decision as to whether they want it on or off.

Shit, this is what I feared

[GameboyRMH]

My facebooktard family is always posting and tagging pics of me at family gatherings, I knew facial recognition to auto-tag people in pics was the next step...maybe next they'll make "info pages" for nonexistant users, that will practially be an "unmanned" facebook profile filled with 3rd-party information, that you can sign up to claim at any time...great...

Re:How This Happens:

[AmiMoJo]

They have already apologised for it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13693791 [bbc.co.uk]

My bet is they planned to just turn it on and apologise later because it would still be more profitable than trying to get everyone to switch it on voluntarily. Also some great free publicity for their new feature.