Facebook Disables Face Recognition In EU

SquarePixel writes "Facebook has disabled face recognition features on its site for all new European users. The move follows privacy recommendations made by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. Tag Suggest information has been turned off for new users, and Facebook plans to delete the information for existing EU users by October 15th. 'The DPC says today’s report (PDF) is the result of evaluations it made through the first half of 2012 and on-site at Facebook’s HQ in Dublin over the course of two days in May and four in July. The DPC says FB has made just about all of the improvements it requested in five key areas: better transparency for the user in how their data is handled; user control over settings; more clarity on the retention periods for the deletion of personal data, and users getting more control over deleting things; an improvement in how users can access their personal data; and the ability of Facebook to be able to better track how they are complying with data protection requirements.'"

Europe knows what's going on

[GameboyRMH]

Other countries should get a clue before they lose what privacy they have left. It's not an obsolete concept just because the execs of the companies that stand to profit most from your personal info say so. Facial recognition technology is one of the biggest threats to privacy.

Re:Europe knows what's going on

[GameboyRMH]

Good thing [justia.com] the US [thinkprogress.org] has no such laws [anapsid.org]

Julian Assange was right on Facebook...

[dryriver]

Assange called Facebook "The most abominable spying-machine created in all of human history". I'm inclined to think that he was right about that, since U.S. 3 letter agencies seem to have bought special software that crawls sites like Facebook to collect as much data/information about each person as possible. -------- The EU did the right thing here. Suckerberg can't be trusted with anybody's privacy. -------- Now if only I could live to see the day when people voluntarily delete their profiles off Facebook, and use alternate services that aren't as intrusive...

Re:Europe knows what's going on

[ShanghaiBill]

Can you list these countries? I call bullshit.

Obscuring your face in public is illegal in France [wikipedia.org] and Belgium [wikipedia.org]. In some other countries, including Italy and Spain, there is no national law, but it is illegal in many localities.