Facebook Facial Recognition Feature Facing New Scrutiny
June 8, 2011
| 6:03 PM
Facebook is facing new scrutiny over its decision to automatically turn on a new facial recognition feature aimed at helping users identify their friends in photos.
The new feature, which the social networking service has been rolling out in many countries in the last several months, allows Facebook users to automatically tag their friends using facial recognition software when they or one of their friends uploads a new photo. What's causing concern, however, is that Facebook has turned the feature on by default and requires consumers to opt out if they don't want to use it.
"Requiring users to disable this feature after they've already been included by Facebook is no substitute for an opt-in process," Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., co-chairman of the Bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus, said in a statement Wednesday. "If this new feature is as useful as Facebook claims, it should be able to stand on its own, without an automatic sign-up that changes users' privacy settings without their permission."
Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, also has some concerns with the new feature and has called on Facebook to answer several questions. They include whether there are any other possible uses for the software other than suggesting potential tags to friends; how many people have opted out of the service and is the feature totally turned off when they do so; and does the company have concerns that the technology could be abused.
"While facial recognition technology has exciting possibilities - and is already being utilized to some extent by Google and Apple - there are some obvious privacy concerns as well, and we intend to examine them as part of the broader online privacy debate," Bono Mack's office said in a statement.
European data protection regulators are reportedly investigating the controversy, according to several news reports.
Facebook has found itself in hot water a number of times in recent years for making changes that have raised privacy concerns. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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