Chris Lange, FISM News
Meta Platforms Inc., formerly known as Facebook Inc., announced on Tuesday that it will shut down its facial recognition system and remove the “facial recognition templates” of over 1 billion users, citing growing concerns over privacy.
The move comes amid growing controversy surrounding the ethics of using the technology that have plagued the social media giant in recent years.
“Regulators are still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use,” said Jerome Pesenti, vice president of artificial intelligence at Meta, in a blog post. “Amid this ongoing uncertainty, we believe that limiting the use of facial recognition to a narrow set of use cases is appropriate.”
Facial recognition technology is widely used in hospitals and businesses for security purposes; however, critics argue that it poses a threat to privacy, targets vulnerable groups like children, and fosters intrusive surveillance. IBM no longer sells facial recognition products, and Amazon.com and Microsoft Corp. have banned sales of the technology to police indefinitely on the basis that critics say it could lead to misidentification of suspects who are minorities.
Shuttering the technology means that Meta will no longer be able to automatically identify faces in images and videos. Pesenti also indicates that the platform’s Automatic Alt Text (AAT), which provides image descriptions to blind users, will stop including the names of people appearing in the content. The changes are expected to be completed by December.
Consumer watchdog groups have filed multiple complaints with the Federal Trade Commission over the network collecting user biometric data. Last year, Facebook agreed to pay $650 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over allegations that its facial recognition system violated the privacy of users, marking one of the largest payouts in a privacy lawsuit. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission in 2019 had listed face recognition as one of its concerns in its decision to fine Facebook $5 billion to settle privacy complaints.
Meta’s decision to nix the system was met with approval by consumer advocacy groups.
“We commend Facebook’s decision to shut down its facial recognition program, especially given the company’s history of misleading consumers over the use of the technology,” said Consumer Reports senior policy analyst Maureen Mahoney, who added that there needs to be “comprehensive federal privacy protections” in place to protect consumer privacy.
Meta has not ruled out using the technology in other products in the future.