Meta is bringing facial recognition technology back to its apps after more than three years Facebook’s ‘facial recognition’ system amid wider backlash against the technology. Now, the social network will begin deploying facial recognition tools to Facebook and Instagram to combat fraud and help users who have lost access to their accounts, the company said in an update.
The first test will use facial recognition to detect fraudulent ads that use the faces of celebrities and other public figures. “If our systems suspect that an ad may be fraudulent because it contains an image of a public figure at risk to celebrities, we will attempt to use facial recognition technology to match the faces in the ad to the public figure’s Facebook and Instagram profile pictures. ”, Meta explained in a blog post. “If we verify compliance and confirm that the ad is fraudulent, we will block it.”
The company said the feature is already rolling out to a small group of celebrities and public figures, and that while individuals will have the option to opt out, it will automatically start opting more people in “in the coming weeks.” defense. While Meta already has systems in place to review ads for potential fraud, the company can’t always catch “celebrity bait” ads because many legitimate companies use celebrities and public figures to market their products, said Monika Bickert, vice president of content policy. Meta said in the briefing. “It’s a real-time process,” he said of the new facial recognition feature. “It’s faster and more accurate than manual inspection.”
Also, Meta is testing facial recognition tools to solve another long-standing problem on Facebook and Instagram: . The company is testing a new “video selfie” option that allows users to upload a clip of themselves, which Meta will match to their profile photos when users can’t access their accounts. The company will use this in cases of suspected account theft to prevent hackers from accessing accounts using stolen credentials.
The tool will not be able to help anyone who has lost access to their Facebook or Instagram account. Many business pages, for example, don’t have a person’s profile picture, so those users should use Meta’s existing account recovery options. But Bickert says the new process will make it more difficult for bad actors to play with the company’s support tools: “It’s going to be a higher level of difficulty for them to try to bypass our systems.”
With both new features, Meta said it will “immediately delete” the facial data used for comparison and that the scans will not be used for any other purpose. The company is also making the features optional, though celebrities have to opt out of deceptive ad protection rather than opt-in.
This could draw criticism from privacy advocates, especially given Meta’s troubled history with facial recognition. The company previously used this technology to power automatic photo tagging, which allowed the company to automatically recognize users’ faces in photos and videos. The feature has been discontinued Meta deleted the facial data of more than 1 billion people, citing “growing public concerns.” The company is also facing lawsuits over its use of the technology, particularly from Texas and Illinois. Meta paid to settle a claim under Illinois law and To settle a similar lawsuit in Texas.
Interestingly, the new tools won’t be available in either Illinois or Texas to begin with. According to Bickert, it won’t roll out to users in the UK or the European Union as the company “continues to negotiate with regulators” in the region. According to a Meta spokesperson, the company “hopes to expand this technology globally sometime in 2025.”
