Aaliyyah Posted June 8, 2011 By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER And CHRISTOPHER LAWTON Facebook Inc. stoked fresh concerns from privacy advocates and lawmakers in the U.S. and Europe by rolling out technology that uses facial recognition to identify people in photos on its website. The technology was designed to help Facebook users mark friends in photos as they upload them to the social networking site. Facebook first introduced the technology to U.S. users in December, and added it to most of the rest of the world this week, prompting privacy advocates globally to take a second look. Face-recognition technology is just the latest Facebook product that privacy advocates say goes over the line. They say it raises concerns that Facebook has built a potentially sensitive database of its more than 600 million users based on their facial characteristics. It reprises a longstanding divide with privacy advocates over whether new Facebook services should be automatically turned on for users who might not be aware of them. The face-recognition tool is enabled by default. The need for users to opt-out of the service drew some ire from Congress. On Wednesday, Massachusetts Rep. Edward J. Markey said Facebook ought to have made the technology "opt-in" for users. "If this new feature is as useful as Facebook claims, it should be able to stand on its own, without an automatic sign-up that changes users' privacy settings without their permission," said Rep. Markey in a statement. In a statement, a Facebook spokesman said the company "should have been more clear with people during the roll-out process when this became available to them." The spokesman said the technology only makes suggestions when people add new photos to the site, and it only suggests identities from a users' existing set of friends on the site. "If for any reason someone doesn't want their name to be suggested, they can disable the feature in their Privacy Settings," wrote the spokesman in an email. "Facebook users thought they were simply tagging their friends. Turns out Facebook was building an image profile database to automate online identification," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy group based in Washington. His organization currently has a complaint pending with the Federal Trade Commission regarding changes to Facebook's privacy settings, he said. At least one regulator in Europe also said it was investigating the technology. Ciara O'Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the Ireland data protection authority said the organization is investigating the feature, and is seeking input from Facebook. "The new feature needs to be examined for compliance with Irish data protection requirements," Ms. O'Sullivan said in an email. "We will seek the input of Facebook in the first instance and will liaise with colleague data protection authorities as appropriate," she added. The Facebook spokesman said, "We have noted the comments from some regulators about this product feature and we are providing them with additional information which we are confident will satisfy any concerns they will have." Write to Geoffrey A. Fowler at geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com and Christopher Lawton at christopher.lawton@wsj.com Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304778304576373730948200592.html#ixzz1OiQZhRpK Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OdaySomali Posted June 9, 2011 One more reason to not use facebook. Should I close my account and change the name on it I wonder hmm. I hardly ever use it anyway. If you use FB on your mobile phone it tracks your movements as well I remember reasind somewhere. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
N.O.R.F Posted June 9, 2011 FB, Iphone, BB, Android all have some sort devise that is bordering on invasion of privacy. Being the conspiracy theorist I am I would wager that there are 'dark forces' (Govnt Agencies) involved to an extent. Be careful where you go and what is online Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OdaySomali Posted June 9, 2011 ^ We share those thoughts NORf. It is just rediculous how much personal info people post on FB. Their every move they report as though it is the news of the world. Certainly an excellent databse of info for anyone... of course sold to the highest bidders or any bidders. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
