Facebook has announced a new facial recognition technology aimed at achieving simpler and faster tagging, as well as improving the overall process of adding and viewing images.
For some, this is yet another reason for panic and concern regarding personal data security on Facebook. According to Facebook’s data, more than 100 million images are added daily by users to their profiles, a statistic that could rival that of YouTube, where one video is added every minute, 24 hours a day. In addition to this enormous volume of images, there is practically no one on Facebook who is not part of this process. More than 400 million users have added at least one image. Sam Odio, Facebook’s new product manager for images, emphasizes that adding images is very popular and that improvements to the services Facebook provides are therefore necessary, reports the NY Times. Odio founded Divvyshot, a company that developed the facial recognition technology, which Facebook acquired two months ago. For now, the technology works by identifying the face present in the added image and asking the user, ‘Whose face is this?’ According to Facebook’s report, the service is in a limited testing phase, but it will soon appear on the popular social network, along with some other new features. Tim Stevens from Engadget claims that the facial recognition technology will not go so far as to identify faces from all images. We must admit that we are glad Facebook did not opt for that option, as the implications would be very concerning. However, when they decide to, I am sure they will introduce a privacy setting that will give us the option to choose whether or not we want our face to be identified in every image on Facebook, right? Stevens wonders. (Z. S.)
