Facebook shuts down automatic face recognition, deletes over 1 billion saved faces

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Facebook shocked the world today by announcing that it is shutting down its automatic facial tagging system, powered by facial recognition. This is the system that detects who is in the photos based on the faces they see.

People who have previously opted in to using this in photos and videos will not be automatically recognized, and Facebook will remove over a billion people from individual facial recognition templates.

This means that people’s faces will not be automatically recognized in Memories, photos or videos, and you will not be able to play them again. The company says it’s still encouraging people to tag posts manually, but the automated process won’t happen anymore.

In addition, the automatic alt text, which creates image descriptions for the blind, will not include the names of the people in the recognized images.

All of this is happening “in the coming weeks,” and Facebook says it is doing so because “we need to weigh positive use cases of facial recognition against growing societal concerns, especially since regulators have not yet introduced clear rules.”

The company says that “the long-term role of face recognition in the community needs to be discussed publicly, and among those who will be affected most by it,” while also promising that it will continue to “engage in that conversation and work with the civil society community groups and regulators who are leading that discussion.” “.

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