Facebook Silently Enables Facial Recognition Abilities For Users Outside EU, Canada (neowin.net) 70
Facebook is now informing users around the world that it's rolling out facial recognition features. Users in the European Union and Canada will not be notified because laws restrict this type of activity in those areas. Neowin reports: With the new tools, you'll be able to find photos that you're in but haven't been tagged in; they'll help you protect yourself against strangers using your photo; and Facebook will be able to tell people with visual impairments who's in their photos and videos. By default, Facebook warns that this feature is enabled but can be switched off at any time; additionally, the firm says it may add new capabilities at any time. In its initial statement, Facebook said the following about the impersonation protections it was introducing: "We want people to feel confident when they post pictures of themselves on Facebook so we'll soon begin using face recognition technology to let people know when someone else uploads a photo of them as their profile picture. We're doing this to prevent people from impersonating others on Facebook."
Silently? (Score:5, Informative)
How is telling you they're doing it and telling you how to turn it off 'silently enabling' it?
I got a clear message about this when I logged in
Re: (Score:2)
How is telling you they're doing it and telling you how to turn it off 'silently enabling' it?
I got a clear message about this when I logged in
My message said i had to turn it on as it was off already...
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ssshhhhh, let the fear-mongering article writers get their click-bait ad revenue!
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Presumably they enabled the facial recognition back end ages ago. Maybe even for EU citizens. Even if the user part has only just been turned on, that database exists somewhere.
Just wait until that leaks out. Of course I'm assuming GCHQ and the NSA hacked it long ago anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
Why should I go through the hassle of hacking something that I can get by simply asking nicely? Or if that doesn't work with an "or else" attached.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
I could be high as a kite on drugs *and* drunk out of my mind *and* stoned on prescription drugs, and I still won't sign up. Maybe heavy medication explains why people are on facebook.
Re:it just keeps getting worse. (Score:5, Interesting)
Facebook used to be a digital Rolodex of aggravating people you'd rather send an occasional birthday card than speak to in person, but in the last 7 years it's shaping up to become new societal piss-test for everything from dating to employment.
Wanna see where this end up? Black Mirror, season 3, episode 1: Nosedive
Re: (Score:1)
They already build one. I signed up for an account a while back to keep in touch with a small-ish group. Facebook suggested people I hadn't interacted with for years. My account was new, but my profile was already there. A bit creepy if you ask me. I hope the US grows a backbone and clamps down on what they can do without users and non-users permission.
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Wrong or confusing post (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Summary is 100% false. Correct your summary. (Score:5, Informative)
I had to turn it off, it was enabled by default for me (and I made a post bitching about having to turn it off immediately after, which means I have backing proof) so, no.
Re: Summary is 100% false. Correct your summary. (Score:1)
At the very least, it's disabled by default for some users, as you can see by the posts here. It may be enabled by default for others, and I have no reason to doubt you. I posted based on my experience.
So, is it on or off depending on the country or state the user is in, or something else? I'm in the US, in Nebraska, and it was disabled by default.
Re: (Score:3)
Most likely enabled or disabled based on other settings. I mean, it's software. When you add new switches, you set their default state to whatever makes the most sense based on the state of other settings.
Re:Summary is 100% false. Correct your summary. (Score:4, Insightful)
The feature is disabled by default. Users must opt in for facial recognition to be turned on.
And if you believe that, I have a few bridges to sell you. This garbage is always on, always enabled. You only opting to not see it. It's still there. All our faces are stored in their databases. I've never uploaded a picture of myself to Facebook, EVER, and it still fucking has my face, when others have uploaded pictures with me in them, it knows who I am. Even when closed my account, in 2009, it still knows and attaches the id to the face, should anyone upload something with me in it.
Even more disturbing, when I reopened an account under a pseudoname to participate in a contest on Second Life, it pretty quickly figured out who I am, and started recommending I friend all the people I used to have as friends. Super creepy.
My solution? I let my mother use my account to play farmville and accumulate a bunch of nonsense friends to muddy the waters. I don't even use the account anymore, haven't in years.
Re:Summary is 100% false. Correct your summary. (Score:4, Insightful)
when others have uploaded pictures with me in them, it knows who I am.
Because they tag you, you poor dingbat.
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Re:Summary is 100% false. Correct your summary. (Score:5, Interesting)
Mr Coward seems to be forgetting that the world extends slightly beyond the peripheries of the northern Atlantic.
I'm in Brazil at the moment, and got a message from Facebook today telling me it was on by default. Although as I'm actually European, it makes me wonder how Facebook decides which locale's rules to apply to my profile. Does it automatically opt you in to everything it can as soon as you login from a location with weaker protections?
I'm in Australia and it's ON by default. (Score:2, Informative)
I got the message yesterday.
It's ON and they say you can go to settings to turn it OFF.
Re: (Score:2)
We can experiment on users pretty easily. That's what he's pointing out. Software can behave differently purely out of choice to find out what users do given different options (followed by a survey asking them how their experience was.) When you have a huge install base, this can be useful.
Protection Racket (Score:5, Insightful)
they'll help you protect yourself against strangers using your photo
I don't like facial recognition. But I do like stopping people from using photos of me. It sure is nice of facebook...to offer to protect us...from facebook. All they need in return is a little more intrusion. Well played facebook. Well played. Even shifted the blame to other users.
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(Don-Corleone-Voice)
Nice social life you have there, shame if anything bad was to happen to it...
I apologize to ISR-meme haters in advance... (Score:3)
Outside of EU, Facebook looks at YOU!
Huh, interesting... (Score:3)
Here in Brazil the thing rolled out but off as default, much like it was reported in US.
I wonder what Facebook is taking in consideration to make it off or on by default.
I'd think that in EU it'd be the last place on Earth that Facebook would force something related to privacy erosion as on by default, but we'll see how that goes for them. If they end up sued, it's their own fault.
Re:Huh, interesting... (Score:4, Informative)
Another user from Brazil said it was on by default. I wouldn't rush to assumptions.
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Is not silently if you are notified (Score:2)
Is not silently if you are notified
but is still a tad creepy.
The only upside is being notified of photos were you are present but not tagged.
I choose to let it be for the time being.
Let's see how facebook deals with the fact that i lost 38Kilos in 2011 (84 pounds)
For your protection (Score:1)
Hilarious how this is being spun as a benevolent policy to protect their users. I doubt profile picture impersonation is such a big deal, but if FB plants that seed of doubt it might convince people to opt-in "for their own good".
EU (Score:2)
So happy to live in the EU.
Re: (Score:2)
But... think of the productivity spike if they did!
YOU are their product to sell (Score:1)
This has zero to do with protection - this is just another way to mine data about you, as if you were a Bitcoin... Look no further than going to your "General Account Settings" page. There I found that it no longer had my email address lableled as email address, but rather it is now labeled "Ad account contact", implying your email is now how they wrap up your info and sell it off.
What will Facebook be able to do? (Score:2)
...With the new tools, you'll be able to...
How is Facebook going to use this new capability? Will it offer money to stores to obtain real-time video feeds and find out who the customers are? Will it tap into local government security cameras to track people as they walk past a store?
Bullshit (Score:2)
And you thought EU/Canada had no rights (Score:2)
Look, you live in a third world country if you're in the USA.
Adapt.
They are watching you. Everywhere.
And is it ok if I have that choco bar you forgot?