Why is Facebook shutting down its facial recognition system and deleting 'faceprints'? – The Guardian

Facebook has announced it is deleting about 1bn “faceprints” it used as part of a facial recognition system for photo tagging, citing concerns with the technology.Meta, the company formally known as Facebook, announced on Tuesday it would end its use of facial recognition technology in the coming weeks. A third of Facebook’s users, or about 1 billion people, had opted into the service, Meta’s vice-president of artificial intelligence Jerome Pesenti said.So is the company really concerned about people’s privacy, or is it just a public relations move?How was Facebook using facial recognition technology?When people opted in to allowing the use of facial recognition, Facebook scanned a “faceprint” of that user and used it to find photos and videos of them on the platform, and suggested tagging them.It was also used to identify if someone else was impersonating that user on Facebook, and helped with accessibility for people with visual impairments by telling them who was in a photo.Why is Facebook stopping it?Pesenti said while facial recognition technology is a powerful tool to verify identity, it needs strong privacy and transparency controls to let people limit how their faces are used. He noted there were “many concerns” about the place of…
Read More