Facebook - Venturing Into Facial Recognition

Facebook is expanding how it uses facial recognition to find people in photos. The company will notify users when someone uploads a photo with them in it even if they’re not tagged. The user will then have the option to add their tag to the photo, leave themselves untagged, or report the photo if they think it’s inappropriate. The feature will also work with profile photos, but won’t be available in Canada, where data laws restrict the use of facial recognition. 

What are the risks? 

 A harasser who isn’t able to directly message their target could upload a picture with them in it, perhaps Photoshopped to include a nasty or abusive joke, and Facebook will recognize their face and ping that user, doing the harasser’s work for them. And for profile photos, users don’t even need to have mutual friends to be sent a notification.

 For Facebook, the challenge is trying to minimize situations like the one above while making these tools open enough to encourage the good sort of engagement like connecting with a new friend you met at a house party because you appear in their photos.

Well at the end the user has the power to report a photo and has the power to choose what goes online to public of them anywhere in the world. It kind of gives more power to the user and also helps people connect with each other around the world more easily.