Palo Alto, Calif. – Facebook on Thursday announced that it
has begun using facial recognition software as a means of increasing the number
of photos that are "tagged" with the names of the users they depict.
The software will now examine past uploaded photos, and "suggest"
names of similar-looking people that it recognizes in newly uploaded photos.
"If
for any reason you don’t want your name to be suggested, you will be able to
disable suggested tags in your Privacy Settings," the company wrote in a
blog post.
"Just click ‘Customize Settings’ and ‘Suggest photos of me to
friends.’ Your name will no longer be suggested in photo tags, though friends
can still tag you manually."
Facebook notes that users are currently
adding more than 100 million photo tags daily.
In October, the company added
"group tagging," where a user could automatically tag the same person
in a group of uploaded photos.
Related Links:
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=467145887130
http://tinyurl.com/2fdmc4n
(Huffington Post)
I think this is going to be completely worthless. Facebook just seems to be getting less and less secure by the day. TThese new features will just make facebook worse. I have quit facebook and am currently looking at Diaspora. This too has issues and i am waiting for the launch of MyCube. Hopefully this lives up to its promise
Why is it enabled by default in the first place? Is there any notification given to a person asking him if he/she is ok with being tagged? These are some of the questions that Facebook’s photo tagging software raises and as is typical of Facebook these are some of the issues that are ignored. People must switch to more secure sites before its too late.