Meta stops facial recognition identification

Meta (formerly Facebook) retire its function of facial recognition following a long legal battle held away from the media. Meta says the shutdown will be in the coming weeks.

Meta, the successor to Facebook, will cease soon to use algorithms and will remove its models from facial recognition. As a reminder, this feature allowed him toautomatically identify people in photos and videos.

Useful technology banned by a top Meta

Jerome Pesenti, the vice-president of the Artificial Intelligence department of Meta, announces the limitation of the use of its recognition technology “At the level of the whole company”.

Remember that in 2019, Facebook had limited facial recognition by making it optional. The move followed a lawsuit that accused IDs on that network of violating an Illinois biometric privacy law, leading to a $ 650 million fine in February 2021.

“Looking to the future, we still see facial recognition technology as a powerful tool. (…) But the many specific cases where facial recognition can be useful must be balanced against growing concerns about the effects of this technology as a whole. “

Jerome Pesenti

In fact, there will be more marking suggestion On the photos. In addition, users will not be most notified when the application considers that they appear in posts of other profiles.

Meta prioritizes privacy

Meta’s decision will not prevent independent companies that have accumulated image data from photos from social networks to use facial recognition algorithms. This is particularly the case that Clearview AI. However, the latter will work with the American police to properly supervise this functionality of « surveillance ».

Currently, Meta is preparing the deployment of a virtual and augmented reality daring. The company launched a pair of smart glasses equipped with a camera, in partnership with Ray Ban earlier this year. In addition, 3D virtual worlds are gradually being launched on Meta VR.

By disabling this feature that Facebook has been using for years, Meta hopes to strengthen the user trust on the protection of privacy. However, one wonders if this decision is only a simple way to revive the number one of social networks after the legal challenges? This possibility should not be ruled out.