First there were those creepy Domino’s ads that show up on the side when you say the word ‘pizza.’ Then there were those squares that magically find faces in a photo. Now, Facebook cannot only recognize that a face is present- it can recognize whose face is present.
With its new facial recognition software, Facebook is able to suggest tags by grouping similar photos together and then using the information from previous tags.
Tagging photos is without a doubt one of Facebook’s most esteemed and distinguishable features. “Tagging is actually really important for control, because every time a tag is created it means that there was a photo of you on the Internet that you didn’t know about,” says Facebook’s Vice President of Product, Chris Cox. And now, tagging photos is more effortless and efficient than ever.
Facebook describes the ease it expects this new software will bring with this statement:
Now if you upload pictures from your cousin’s wedding, we’ll group together pictures of the bride and suggest her name. Instead of typing her name 64 times, all you’ll need to do is click “Save” to tag all of your cousin’s pictures at once.
According to MSNBC , “the first thing you probably want to know about Facebook’s new ‘tag suggestions’ is that they are optional. You can choose not to be suggested to your friends by simply visiting `Privacy Settings’, then `Customize Settings’, and then disabling `Suggest photos of me to friends’.”
With almost every change Facebook makes comes some appraisal and a lot of controversy. The question surrounding this change is “Does Facebook know too much about us?”
Maya Citron, a 10th grader, says “no” because “it’s the computer (and not the people working behind Facebook) who are doing all the recognizing.”
Another 10th grader, Janae Barrett, disagrees. When asked what she thinks of the new tagging method, she said, “Yes, I have seen it, and it scares me. I think that technology like Facebook knows way too much about a person. In many ways, it is dangerous. I think it also reflects the future of social networks on the whole.”
While the answer to this question is certainly debatable, Facebook has dodged several privacy bullets by allowing the company’s 500 million users to customize their privacy settings to a tee. Will you subject yourself to the new facial recognition software?