Why Facebook Is Collapsing Facial Recognition System

Facebook's parent company, Meta has announced that it is collapsing about one Billion Face Recognition systems used for photo tagging on Facebook in the “coming weeks.”

The company made the statement on Tuesday that its team will delete the facial recognition templates and users will no longer be automatically recognised in photos if they opted into the feature. Automatic Alt Text's descriptions for the visually impaired will also stop naming people detected in photos.

Meta said that it made the verdict following "growing concerns" about the broader use of facial recognition, including "uncertainty" about the regulation of the technology.

The parent company maintained that face recognition could still be supportive in some circumstances, such as gaining access to a locked account, it felt a "narrower," more privacy-oriented approach was a better fit than the broader outgoing strategy.

“Looking ahead, we still see facial recognition technology as a powerful tool, for example, for people needing to verify their identity or to prevent fraud and impersonation. We believe facial recognition can help for products like these with privacy, transparency and control in place, so you decide if and how your face is used. We will continue working on these technologies and engaging outside experts.”