Facebook Replaces 'Tag Suggestions' With Its 'Face Recognition' Feature

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Facebook has announced that new Facebook users, or those who had the tag suggestions setting, will now have the face recognition setting instead.

Facebook In December 2017, Facebook introduced a new face recognition feature to help people protect their identity on Facebook. The setting controls whether Facebook uses face recognition to suggest who to tag in images, and provides an easy on or off switch for a broader set of uses of face recognition.

The feature is now becoming the norm, as announced by Srinivas Narayanan, Applied Research Lead at Facebook AI last week:

“Starting today, people who newly join Facebook or who previously had the tag suggestions setting will have the face recognition setting and will receive information about how it works” Narayanan explained.

However, “the tag suggestions setting, which only controls whether we can suggest that your friends tag you in photos or videos using face recognition will no longer be available.”

Users who still have the tag suggestions setting will start to see a notification in their News Feed, providing information about the new features and options. There will also be a button to turn the feature on or keep off.

An Update About Face Recognition
Posted by Facebook on Tuesday, September 3, 2019

For anyone who doesn’t have the face recognition setting and doesn’t act, Facebook will not use face recognition to suggest tags or to recognise someone in an image.

New Facebook users, or those who had the tag suggestions setting, will now have the face recognition setting instead. The tag suggestion setting will no longer be available.

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Furthermore, Narayanan explained that other features, like Photo Review, won’t be activated. The feature lets users know when they appear in photos on Facebook, even if they are not tagged, but as long as they have permission to see a post based on its privacy setting.

Users can still tag friends manually, but Facebook won’t suggest them to be tagged if they don’t have face recognition turned on. Those who already have the setting won’t receive a notification.

Facebook continues to engage with privacy experts, academics, regulators and members of the community about how it uses face recognition, and the options users have to control it. Finally, it’s assuring to users that the company’s face recognition technology “still does not recognize you to strangers.” Perhaps most importantly, Facebook won’t share face recognition data with third-parties or sell its technology.