Facebook has announced changes to its facial recognition settings, one of the issues raised in its record fine from the US Federal Trade Commission for privacy violations. The default setting for most users going forward will be to have facial recognition turned off.
Most Facebook users could previously use the 'tag suggestions' setting to automatically suggest tags of friends in photos based on facial recognition. In December 2017, the social network introduced a new setting for some people called face recognition. The new setting lets users manage not only whether Facebook uses face recognition technology to suggest tags, but also provides an on or off switch for a broader set of uses of face recognition on Facebook, such as personal identification.
Going forward, tag suggestions will no longer be available and only the wider facial recognition setting will be applied. People who newly join Facebook or who previously had the tag suggestions setting will have the face recognition setting and will receive information about how it works. Face recognition will be turned off by default and users will receive info in their news feed about what happens if they turn it on. They can still tag friends in photos, but will not themselves be available for tagging if they turn the setting off.
Facebook said that face recognition can be used to alert users when they appear in a photo and have not been tagged, as well as for alerts if someone is mis-using their photo or identity on the social network. It does not recognise users to strangers (non-friends), nor does Facebook share face information with third parties, the company said.
Users already with the face recognition setting will see no change.
