Facebook Knows Your Face, So Watch Out

I don’t use Facebook as much as I used to, certainly not in a Farmville sort of a way, more just for uploading the odd photo album.

The last time I did this I was pretty impressed that Facebook grouped all the faces it found in the pictures and presuming they were the same person allowed you to multi tag several pictures at once.

I was impressed – so much so I even tweeted about this at the time:

Got to say, most impressed with the auto tagging facility doings when uploading pics on #facebook, picks out faces in photos for you to tag!

November 14, 2010 7:07 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@dave_ashworth

Dave Ashworth

and to which my cousin replied:

@dave_ashworth When it starts recognising the faces and auto-tagging. *That* will be scary!

November 14, 2010 7:51 pm via ÜberSocialOrigReplyRetweetFavorite

@psbook

Political Scrapbook

Well – that time is upon us with the following announcement:

http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=467145887130

Basically:

“When you or a friend upload new photos, we use face recognition software—similar to that found in many photo editing tools—to match your new photos to other photos you’re tagged in. We group similar photos together and, whenever possible, suggest the name of the friend in the photos.”

Fortunately, you will only be recognised in photos by “friends” – so you won’t be tagged if you are caught “gegging” in some random strangers photos – and there are privacy settings but it would seem you have to opt out, as opposed to opt in.

It’s a great time saver, no question, but can’t help thinking something is going to go wrong at some point and there’s a big lawsuit waiting for Facebook when some bloke gets tagged in an uncompromising position with someone who is not his wife…