Following last week's announcement of a name change to meta, Facebook recently made a major decision: shutting down its face recognition system. The media pointed out that as the owner of the world's largest facial recognition system, Facebook's move will once again arouse global attention to privacy security and software technology regulatory loopholes.
Delete 1 billion pieces of data
According to foreign media reports, Jerome Pesenti, vice president of artificial intelligence at Facebook, released the news on the official website of Meta on the 2nd. He said that due to privacy concerns, the company will shut down Facebook's face recognition system in the coming weeks. Turning off the feature will result in the deletion of facial recognition data for more than 1 billion people.
In 2010, Facebook began using face recognition technology, mainly for the "Tag Suggestion" feature. With this technology, users can automatically discover and tag themselves in photos and videos. Currently, more than one-third of Facebook's daily active users have face recognition enabled. Previously, however, users had the option to enable or disable the feature.
It is reported that Facebook's original intention to enable this technology is to facilitate better interaction between users, thereby increasing user stickiness. However, as it becomes more widely used, so does the controversy surrounding the technology's accuracy, potential racial bias, privacy and security.
Facebook is currently under widespread scrutiny for potential security issues, and Pescenti also raised concerns about the applicability of facial recognition technology. "We need to weigh the positive benefits of facial recognition against growing societal concerns, especially when regulators have yet to provide clear rules," he said.
Turn the direction
The New York Times pointed out that face recognition, as a cutting-edge technology, has brought traffic to Facebook, but its judicial uncertainty has also plagued the social media giant. Facebook has spent a lot of time and money on this, which is a "well-known problem" in the company's development process.
In recent years, because of the security risks of this technology, Facebook has frequently fallen into the storm of user data leakage, experienced a "litigation run" for several years, and paid billions of dollars in huge fines for this. Zuckerberg has also been in and out of Congress several times to testify and has had to deal with regulators. In recent months, the complaints of former employees of the company have made Zuckerberg even more disturbed, and some people have even called for him to give up the CEO position.
On the other hand, there have been recent indications that Zuckerberg is desperate to cut through negative events and strive for transformation. Under the tightening of supervision, privacy and security issues have become a heavy sandbag on Facebook's way forward. Combined with Facebook's name change last week, reversing direction may be a better option.
However, Pescenti also said that the company is not going to completely "hide" face recognition technology, which may still be used in future products, such as social networks or camera glasses. "In the future, we will still see facial recognition technology as a powerful tool to meet people's needs to verify identities and prevent fraud and identity theft."
Stir up ripples
The Washington Post notes that Facebook has the world's largest and most complete facial recognition system, and its "sudden shift" could send a ripple — globally, censorship of the controversial, unregulated technology could tighten.
Due to the growing controversy, many large enterprises have also avoided the "minefield". In addition to Facebook, amazon, Microsoft, ibm and other technology companies have also previously suspended the use of their face recognition products.
Woodrow Hartzog, an online privacy expert and professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University, said Facebook's decision was a "win" that signaled the need for sustained privacy advocacy and criticism of tech companies, while also showing that "these technologies are not essential."
However, some relevant stakeholder groups have also raised objections. Caitlin George, director of the digital rights group's Fight for the Future campaign, believes there's no doubt about the value of facial recognition technology, which will impact the lives of millions of people. At the same time, she also warned Facebook not to use this as a public relations stunt.
In fact, with the development and maturity of technology in recent years, the application of face recognition has been very extensive, including access control systems, passenger boarding, hotel check-in, crime tracking, smart office, etc. But how to regulate and regulate is still a blind spot.
US media pointed out that behind Facebook's "one-size-fits-all" approach, it also reflects the lack of corresponding regulation and legislation at the level of the US federal government.
Alan Butler, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (epic), said that it is not enough for one company to change, but also requires the U.S. government to implement more robust measures for privacy protections.
Agencies such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission have reportedly taken some serious attention and are strengthening regulation of facial recognition; at the same time, some states and cities, including Boston and San Francisco, are setting rules to clarify, restrict or prohibit the use of the technology.
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Column Editor-in-Chief: Yang Liqun Text Editor: Yang Liqun Caption Source: Xinhua News Agency Photo Editor: Su Wei
Source: Author: Yang Ying