Facebook announced that it is ditching the Face Recognition system on its platform and will remove the corresponding profiles previously created for a billion people.
Face Recognition analyzed the photos taken by tagged users and the profile photos of associated users to create a unique template. This template was then used to identify users in other uploaded photos, as well as automatic tags in Memories.Now, a week after its rebranding to Meta, Facebook has announced that it is ditching the facial recognition feature and will remove the templates generated by the system.
Last week, the social network announced the rebranding of its parent company, which will henceforth be called Meta. This title is inspired by Neil Stevenson’s novel Avalanche, where the Metaverse is a virtual reality that encompasses the entire world.
The name change comes amid a recent leak of internal Facebook documents that highlighted its many ethical concerns. In particular, it turned out that the company was aware of the consequences of using its platform, including the spread of radicalizing misinformation, as well as negative consequences for the mental health of adolescent users.
Mark Zuckerberg said the company is ready to change and will redouble its efforts to create immersive virtual experiences in the future.
Jerome Pesenti
The fact is that Facebook has already faced the legal consequences of such “fears”. For example, the company recently paid $ 650 million due to a class action lawsuit in the state of Illinois, where it was alleged that the social network collected and stored biometric data of users without their consent.
Privacy advocates and cybersecurity researchers are already praising Facebook for abandoning facial recognition.
Let me remind you that we also wrote that Have I Been Pwned included a search for data leaked from Facebook by phone number.
