This morning , Facebookannouncedthat it ’s perish to start scanning all the photos uploaded to the social meshwork reckon for your expression , unless you prefer out — or unless you are a European or Canadian , where privacy law actually limits what Facebook can do with people ’s faces . Thepurpose of the scanning , fit in to Facebook , is to alert you if someone has publicly uploaded a photo of you that you do n’t bang about , especially if they are trying to pose you .
Behind the message about protecting your identity , though is a large truth about Facebook ’s ability to touch into your personal commercial enterprise : The announcement means that Facebook ’s face - realization technology is now so herculean that it can recognize you in any photograph , anywhere , even if it has no other reason to expect to find your face in that photograph .
It ’s sluttish to discover your face if Facebook is only count for you among the photos your friends have uploaded . It ’s harder if the possible pool is more than a billion the great unwashed , a.k.a . Facebook ’s entire user base . That Facebook thinks it can do the latter means Facebook believes its faceprints are really proficient now .
And that , in turn , mean Facebook has a new powerful tool for map who knows who on the social internet . By looking at photos from an event , for model , and key out the face , Facebook could know everybody who was there and do it they might be connected . That would be a blessing for Facebook’sPeople You May Knowtool , allowing it to suggest as friends people whose faces appear in the background of photograph it identified you in , or frailty versa .
That surveillance mogul would be more than a little creepy — connecting you , for example , to people wandering around behind you as you pose in front of the Eiffel Tower or to people caught in the background when you drunkenly take a selfie at a bar . Given that potential creepiness , and our longstanding interest in how People You May Knowactually works , a Facebook spokesperson pre - emptively sent us a note about the facial recognition pecker .
“ want to give you a head word up aboutan announcementwe made this morning .
“ I can also corroborate that we do not use this technology in hoi polloi You May Know . ”
If that should interchange , I am sure Facebook will let us know .
This account was produced by Gizmodo Media Group’sSpecial Projects Desk .
This post was bring about by theSpecial Projects Desk of Gizmodo Media . hit our team by phone , text , Signal , or WhatsApp at(917 ) 999 - 6143 , netmail us at[email protected ] , or contact us firmly usingSecureDrop .
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