It will be utilized by the company in order to combat fraudulent activities and to assist in the recovery of accounts.
More than three years after it shut down Facebook’s “face recognition” system in response to a wider backlash against the technology, Meta is bringing facial recognition technology back to its platforms, including its mobile applications. According to an update provided by the firm, the social network will now start implementing facial recognition features on Facebook and Instagram in order to combat scams and assist users who have lost access to their accounts.
The first test will make use of facial recognition technology in order to identify fraudulent advertisements that make use of the faces of public figures and celebrities. “If our systems suspect that an advertisement may be a scam that contains the image of a public figure that is at risk for celeb-bait, we will try to use facial recognition technology to compare faces in the advertisement against the public figure’s Facebook and Instagram profile pictures,” Meta wrote in a blog post. “Celeb-bait is a form of publicity that is intended to attract the attention of the public.” If we find that the advertisement is a scam and that it is a match, then we will stop it.
Despite the fact that users have the option to opt out of the protection, the firm has stated that it has already started to roll out the function to a select group of prominent figures and celebrities. Additionally, the company has stated that it will begin automatically enrolling more people into the service “in the coming weeks.” Monika Bickert, the Vice President of Content Policy at Meta, stated in a briefing that the company is not always able to spot “celeb-bait” advertisements, despite the fact that Meta already has mechanisms in place to examine advertisements for potential scams. This is due to the fact that many legitimate businesses take advantage of celebrities and prominent figures to market their products. In reference to the newly implemented facial recognition function, she stated, “This is a real time process.” “In comparison to manual review, it is both more thorough and more efficient.”
At the same time, Meta is doing tests on facial recognition capabilities in order to address another issue that has persisted for a long time on Facebook and Instagram: account recovery. A new “video selfie” option is now being tested by the firm. This feature gives users the ability to upload a video of themselves, which Meta will then match to their profile photographs in the event that users have been locked out of their accounts. Additionally, it will be utilized by the organization in the event that there is a suspicion of an account being compromised in order to prevent hackers from accessing accounts by using stolen credentials.
If you lose access to your Facebook or Instagram account, the tool will not be able to assist you in every specific situation. Many company sites, for instance, do not have a profile photo of a person; hence, users who are in this situation would be required to utilize the account recovery procedures that are already available on Meta. However, according to Bickert, the new procedure will make it significantly more challenging for malicious actors to use the assistance tools provided by the company. The level of difficulty that they will face in their attempt to circumvent our systems will be far higher, according to Bickert.
Meta claims that it will “immediately delete” facial data that is used for comparisons and that the scans will not be utilized for any other reason. Both of these new capabilities are intended to be implemented simultaneously. Additionally, the firm is making the features optional; however, celebrities will be need to opt-out of the scam ad protection rather than opt-in to receive it.
It is possible that privacy groups will object to this, especially considering Meta’s troubled past with facial recognition technology. Previously, the firm utilized the technology to power automated photo-tagging, which enabled the company to automatically detect the faces of people included in photographs and videos. Following the discontinuation of the service in 2021, Meta deleted the facial data of over one billion individuals, citing “growing societal concerns” as the reason for the decision. Additionally, the corporation is being sued, most notably in the states of Texas and Illinois, for its utilization of the technology. In order to resolve a lawsuit that was linked to the Illinois statute, Meta paid $650 million, and in order to address a lawsuit that was similar in Texas, Meta paid $1.4 billion.
Consequently, it is noteworthy that the new instruments will not initially be accessible in either the state of Illinois or the state of Texas. In addition, it will not be made available to users in the European Union or the United Kingdom since, as stated by Bickert, the business is “continuing to have conversations there with regulators” in the region. A spokesman for Meta stated that the business had “hoping to scale this technology globally sometime in 2025,” although the company has not yet achieved this goal.