Facebook analyzes a user's photos and videos to identify them across the platform, but you can easily disable the feature to improve privacy.
Privacy has always been a sore point with Facebook, and one of its more controversial aspects is the face recognition feature that analyzes a user's photos and videos to identify them across the platform. However, in spite of the myriad controversies related to privacy, misinformation, and hate speech over the years, Facebook continues to remain one of the world's largest social media platform. For those that would rather disable the face recognition feature altogether, it is possible.
Even though Facebook seems to remain unaffected by its regular controversies, including recent allegations about how it disregarded the safety and well-being of children, its facial recognition feature has drawn the ire of users in the US and around the world. The company, earlier this year, agreed to pay $650 million to settle a class action lawsuit in Illinois for allegedly violating the state's stringent biometric privacy laws with its facial recognition software. The American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups have also warned that the use of such technologies could adversely affect privacy.
A key element of its facial recognition feature, Facebook analyzes the user's photos and videos to create a template of their face and then uses that to identify them in other images and videos to suggest tags. While some social networkers may find the feature useful, it can be a concern for others and a feature they will most likely want to disable quickly. Fortunately, Facebook offers a relatively easy way of doing that. Once the feature is disabled, Facebook says it will delete the user's face recognition template and will no longer use the technology to suggest tags. Their friends will still be able to tag them, but won't be prompted by Facebook to do so.
Face recognition can be disabled both on the Facebook website and the mobile apps. On mobile devices, fire up the app and tap on the hamburger menu (three parallel lines) in the top-right corner on Android and bottom-right on iOS. Then scroll down and tap on 'Settings and Privacy' and then on 'Settings.' From there, select 'Face recognition' in the 'Permissions' section and then tap on the card that reads "Do you want Facebook to be able to recognize you in photos and videos?" On the next screen, select 'No' to disable facial recognition. The change will be auto-saved.
If using the website, the user will need to log in to their Facebook account and click on the downwards arrow in the top-right corner. From the drop-down menu, select 'Settings & Privacy" followed by 'Settings' and then select 'Face recognition' on the left sidebar. On the right pane, there will be an 'Edit' button next to "Do you want Facebook to be able to recognize you in photos and videos?" By default, it will be turned on, so select 'No' from the drop-down menu to turn it off. Just like with the app, the preference will be auto-saved on the website as well. While disabling face recognition is a start, it is not the only way to improve the user experience. For example, users can also block someone on Facebook to reduce harassment on the platform.
Source: Facebook
