Facebook Re-enables Tag Suggestions Face-Recognition Feature In the US 98
An anonymous reader writes "Facebook has brought back its photo Tag Suggestions feature to the U.S. after temporarily suspending it last year to make some technical improvements. Facebook says it has re-enabled it so that its users can use facial recognition 'to help them easily identify a friend in a photo and share that content with them.' Facebook first rolled out the face recognition feature across the U.S. in late 2010. The company eventually pushed photo Tag Suggestions to other countries in June 2011, but in the US there was quite a backlash. Yet Facebook doesn't appear to have made any privacy changes to the feature: it's still on by default."
Re:I guess all those natives were right (Score:4, Insightful)
facebook has said they endorse apple's "complete control" model. So anyone who trusts facebook after that, is making a big mistake - not one they weren't already warned of.
Just like viruses, it's going to get a lot worse before people start figuring out what to do about it and what not to do. It's still in the "only the technical people who get it are saying stop using it" category.
Activists should be most concerned (Score:5, Insightful)
If the FBI had access to Facebook's database during the days of COINTELPRO, it is doubtful the American Civil Rights movement would have ever occurred.
Facial recognition is an amazingly powerful tool for law enforcement when it comes to political adversaries -- imagine a scenario where local police and the FBI could just pop a photo into the special "Law Enforcement" console on Facebook, and find out who the person is, who their friends are, what their likes/dislikes are, what they order online (what kind of ads are targeted), etc.
It's also sad that most young activists these days are all over Facebook and have been giving it all their information since they turned 13 (or earlier if they just ignored that 13+ stuff), so by the time they become involved, the government has an easy way to find out literally everything about their personal lives. Just upload a picture of them snapped at some political rally, and voila!
The problem is Facebook is so addictive, I see such compulsive behavior clicking photos, and when you block facebook on networks, users downright have panic attacks.
Sounds like George Orwell may have been right: We love big brother.
Re:I guess all those natives were right (Score:5, Insightful)
having your face recognized in a photo that you already appear in, to people who already know you
Such naivety! One has to marvel!
Within a couple years every face will be identifiable on line in every picture you take whether or not you know the person or not, even if that person does not have a facebook account.
Face recognition plus Graph Search means nobody is safe from they prying eyes of facebook.
If the FBI/CIA/NSA/Scotland Yard tried to set this up, world plus dog would be howling in protest.
(Oh, and before you spout any privacy protections, let me offer a loud scoff of derision in your general direction: HA!)
Re:I guess all those natives were right (Score:5, Insightful)
That's not the problem. The problem is when it becomes searchable. Your potential new employer does a search and comes up with that picture from a high school party you didn't know was taken. You know, that party where you knew exactly one person out of the 50 or so there? The one that, as you are about to find out, was also attended by the person who later went on to become a notorious drug dealer (who you never even noticed). Sorry sir, BozoBank international doesn't hire people who party with known felons.
Wouldn't you have preferred to remain just that anonymous guy sitting in the background looking like he's about to bail on the lamest party ever?
Re:I guess all those natives were right (Score:4, Insightful)
That would actually be a great opensource project.. Hmmmm.. the "break my recognition project". "How come this Gerald Whazzisname" looks like a baseball? Well commander, that's what all our searches return.