Facebook Announces It’s Shutting Down Facial Recognition System, Removing Over a BILLION Faceprints

Josh FeldmanNov 2nd, 2021, 3:25 pm
 
Facebook Changes Corporate Name to Meta

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Facebook made a surprise announcement Tuesday that it’s shutting down its facial recognition software.

VP of Artificial Intelligence Jerome Pesenti said they will be shuttering that system and removing the faceprints of more than a billion people.

[T]he many specific instances where facial recognition can be helpful need to be weighed against growing concerns about the use of this technology as a whole. There are many concerns about the place of facial recognition technology in society, and regulators are still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use. Amid this ongoing uncertainty, we believe that limiting the use of facial recognition to a narrow set of use cases is appropriate.

This includes services that help people gain access to a locked account, verify their identity in financial products or unlock a personal device. These are places where facial recognition is both broadly valuable to people and socially acceptable when deployed with care. While we will continue working on use cases like these, we will ensure people have transparency and control over whether they are automatically recognized.

The announcement comes amid serious controversy for Facebook and its recent “Meta” rebrand.

New York Times tech journalist Kashmir Hill reacted with shock Tuesday, saying that all the privacy advocates they spoke with embraced this as “great news.”

 
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Josh Feldman - Senior Editor

Josh Feldman is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: josh@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter: @feldmaniac