{"id":2410,"date":"2021-12-03T06:07:43","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T05:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/12\/03\/facebook-plans-to-shut-down-its-facial-recognition-system-the-new-york-times\/"},"modified":"2021-12-03T06:07:43","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T05:07:43","slug":"facebook-plans-to-shut-down-its-facial-recognition-system-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/12\/03\/facebook-plans-to-shut-down-its-facial-recognition-system-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Plans to Shut Down Its Facial Recognition System &#8211; The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cfbc967f0983488262956e73eca9483a\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3859091246952232\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- blok -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3859091246952232\" data-ad-slot=\"1334354390\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<\/div>\n<p>Advertisement<br \/>Supported by<br \/>Saying it wants \u201cto find the right balance\u201d with the technology, the social network will delete the face scan data of more than one billion users.<br \/><strong>Send any friend a story<\/strong><br \/>As a subscriber, you have <strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">10 gift articles<\/strong> to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.<br \/><span class=\"byline-prefix\">By <\/span><span class=\"css-1baulvz\" itemprop=\"name\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/kashmir-hill\" class=\"css-mrorfa e1jsehar0\">Kashmir Hill<\/a><\/span> and <span class=\"css-1baulvz last-byline\" itemprop=\"name\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/ryan-mac\" class=\"css-mrorfa e1jsehar0\">Ryan Mac<\/a><\/span><br \/><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, <\/em><a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.audm.com\/?utm_source=nyt&amp;utm_medium=embed&amp;utm_campaign=facebook_citing_societal_concerns\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">download Audm for iPhone or Android<\/em><\/a><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">.<\/em><br \/>Facebook plans to shut down its decade-old facial recognition system this month, deleting the face scan data of more than one billion users and effectively eliminating a feature that has fueled privacy concerns, government investigations, a class-action lawsuit and regulatory woes.<br \/>Jerome Pesenti, vice president of artificial intelligence at Meta, <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/28\/technology\/facebook-meta-name-change.html\" title=\"\">Facebook\u2019s newly named parent company<\/a>, <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2021\/11\/update-on-use-of-face-recognition\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said in a blog post<\/a> on Tuesday that the social network was making the change because of \u201cmany concerns about the place of facial recognition technology in society.\u201d He added that the company still saw the software as a powerful tool, but \u201cevery new technology brings with it potential for both benefit and concern, and we want to find the right balance.\u201d<br \/>The decision shutters a feature that was introduced in December 2010 so that Facebook users could save time. The facial-recognition software automatically identified people who appeared in users\u2019 digital photo albums and suggested users \u201ctag\u201d them all with a click, linking their accounts to the images. Facebook now has built one of the largest repositories of digital photos in the world, partly thanks to this software.<br \/>Facial-recognition technology, which has advanced in accuracy and power in recent years, has increasingly been the focus of debate because of how it can be misused by governments, law enforcement and companies. In China, authorities use the capabilities to <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/04\/14\/technology\/china-surveillance-artificial-intelligence-racial-profiling.html\" title=\"\">track and control the Uyghurs<\/a>, a <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/09\/08\/world\/asia\/china-uighur-muslim-detention-camp.html\" title=\"\">largely Muslim minority<\/a>. In the United States, law enforcement has turned to the software to aid policing, leading to fears of overreach and <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/06\/24\/technology\/facial-recognition-arrest.html\" title=\"\">mistaken arrests<\/a>. Some cities and states have <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/05\/14\/us\/facial-recognition-ban-san-francisco.html\" title=\"\">banned or limited the technology<\/a> to prevent potential abuse.<br \/>Facebook only used its facial-recognition capabilities on its own site and did not sell its software to third parties. Even so, the feature became a privacy and regulatory headache for the company. Privacy advocates repeatedly raised questions about how much facial data Facebook had amassed and what the company could do with such information. Images of faces that are found on social networks can be used by start-ups and other entities to train facial-recognition software.<br \/>When the Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook a record <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/07\/12\/technology\/facebook-ftc-fine.html\" title=\"\">$5 billion<\/a> to settle privacy complaints in 2019, the facial recognition software was <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/press-releases\/2019\/07\/ftc-imposes-5-billion-penalty-sweeping-new-privacy-restrictions\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">among the concerns<\/a>. Last year, the company also agreed to pay <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/technology-business-san-francisco-chicago-lawsuits-af6b42212e43be1b63b5c290eb5bfd85\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">$650 million<\/a> to settle a class-action lawsuit in Illinois that accused Facebook of violating a state law that requires residents\u2019 consent to use their biometric information, including their \u201cface geometry.\u201d<br \/>The social network made its facial recognition technology announcement as it also grapples with intense public scrutiny. Lawmakers and regulators have been up in arms over the company in recent months after a former Facebook employee, <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/03\/technology\/whistle-blower-facebook-frances-haugen.html\" title=\"\">Frances Haugen<\/a>, leaked thousands of internal documents that showed the firm was aware of how it enabled the spread of <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/22\/technology\/facebook-election-misinformation.html\" title=\"\">misinformation<\/a>, <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/23\/technology\/facebook-india-misinformation.html\" title=\"\">hate speech<\/a> and violence-inciting content.<br \/>The revelations have led to congressional hearings and regulatory inquiries. Last week, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, renamed Facebook\u2019s parent company as Meta and said he would shift resources toward building products for the next online frontier, a digital world <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/03\/technology\/whistle-blower-facebook-frances-haugen.html\" title=\"\">known as the metaverse<\/a>.<br \/>The change affects more than a third of Facebook\u2019s daily users who had facial recognition turned on for their accounts, according to the company. That meant they received alerts when new photos or videos of them were uploaded to the social network. The feature had also been used to flag accounts that might be impersonating someone else and was incorporated into software that described photos to blind users.<br \/>\u201cMaking this change required us to weigh the instances where facial recognition can be helpful against the growing concerns about the use of this technology as a whole,\u201d said Jason Grosse, a Meta spokesman.<br \/>Although Facebook plans to delete more than one billion facial recognition templates, which are digital scans of facial features, by December, it will not eliminate the software that powers the system, which is an advanced algorithm called DeepFace. The company has also not ruled out incorporating facial recognition technology into future products, Mr. Grosse said.<br \/>Privacy advocates nonetheless applauded the decision.<br \/>\u201cFacebook getting out of the face recognition business is a pivotal moment in the growing national discomfort with this technology,\u201d said Adam Schwartz, a senior lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties organization. \u201cCorporate use of face surveillance is very dangerous to people\u2019s privacy.\u201d<br \/>Facebook is not the first large technology company to pull back on facial recognition software. <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/technology\/exclusive-amazon-extends-moratorium-police-use-facial-recognition-software-2021-05-18\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon<\/a>, <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2020\/06\/11\/microsoft-facial-recognition\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft<\/a> and <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2020\/6\/8\/21284683\/ibm-no-longer-general-purpose-facial-recognition-analysis-software\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">IBM<\/a> have paused or ceased selling their facial recognition products to law enforcement in recent years, while expressing concerns about privacy and <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/12\/19\/technology\/facial-recognition-bias.html\" title=\"\">algorithmic bias<\/a> and calling for <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/07\/13\/technology\/microsoft-facial-recognition.html\" title=\"\">clearer regulation<\/a>.<br \/>Facebook\u2019s facial recognition software has a long and expensive history. When the software was rolled out to Europe in 2011, data protection authorities there said the move was illegal and that the company needed consent to analyze photos of a person and extract the unique pattern of an individual face. In 2015, the technology also led to the filing of the class action suit in Illinois.<br \/>Over the last decade, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based privacy advocacy group, filed two <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.epic.org\/privacy\/facebook\/facebook_and_facial_recognitio.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">complaints<\/a> about Facebook\u2019s use of facial recognition with the F.T.C. When the F.T.C. fined Facebook in 2019, it <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/press-releases\/2019\/07\/ftc-imposes-5-billion-penalty-sweeping-new-privacy-restrictions\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">named<\/a> the site\u2019s confusing privacy settings around facial recognition as one of the reasons for the penalty.<br \/><strong>A tech giant in trouble.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>The leak of internal documents by a former Facebook employee has provided <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/04\/technology\/facebook-files.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">an intimate look<\/a>\u00a0at the operations of the secretive social media company and renewed calls for better regulations of the company\u2019s wide reach into the lives of its users.<\/span><br \/><strong>How it began.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>In September, The Wall Street Journal published The Facebook Files, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/17\/business\/dealbook\/facebook-files-whistleblower.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">a series of reports based on leaked documents<\/a>. The series exposed evidence that Facebook, which on Oct. 28 assumed the corporate name of Meta, knew Instagram, one of its products <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/01\/technology\/facebook-instagram-teenagers.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">was worsening body-image issues among teenagers<\/a>.<\/span><br \/><strong>The whistle-blower.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>During an interview with \u201c60 Minutes\u201d that aired Oct. 3, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/03\/technology\/whistle-blower-facebook-frances-haugen.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">Frances Haugen, a Facebook product manager <\/a>who left the company in May, revealed that she was responsible for the leak of those internal documents.<\/span><br \/><strong>Ms. Haugen\u2019s testimony in Congress.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>On Oct. 5, Ms. Haugen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/05\/technology\/what-happened-at-facebook-whistleblower-hearing.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">testified before a Senate subcommittee<\/a>, saying that Facebook was willing to use hateful and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/05\/technology\/haugen-facebook.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">harmful content<\/a>\u00a0on its site to keep users coming back. Facebook executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, called her accusations untrue.<\/span><br \/><strong>The Facebook Papers.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>Ms. Haugen also filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission and provided the documents to Congress in redacted form. A congressional staff member then supplied the documents, known as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/25\/business\/facebook-papers-takeaways.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">Facebook Papers<\/a>, to several news organizations, including The New York Times.<\/span><br \/><strong>New revelations.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>Documents from the Facebook Papers show the degree to which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/22\/technology\/facebook-election-misinformation.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">Facebook knew of extremist groups on its site<\/a>\u00a0trying to polarize American voters before the election. They also reveal that internal researchers had repeatedly determined how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/25\/technology\/facebook-like-share-buttons.html?action=click&#038;action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc&#038;module=RelatedLinks&#038;pgtype=Article\">Facebook\u2019s key features<\/a>\u00a0amplified toxic content on the platform.<\/span><br \/>\u201cThis was a known problem that we called out over 10 years ago but it dragged out for a long time,\u201d said Alan Butler, EPIC\u2019s executive director. He said he was glad Facebook had made the decision, but added that the protracted episode exemplified the need for more robust U.S. privacy protections.<br \/>\u201cEvery other modern democratic society and country has a data protection regulator,\u201d Mr. Butler said. \u201cThe law is not well designed to address these problems. We need more clear legal rules and principles and a regulator that is actively looking into these issues day in and day out.\u201d<br \/>Mr. Butler also called for Facebook to do more to prevent its photos from being used to power other companies\u2019 facial recognition systems, such as <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/01\/18\/technology\/clearview-privacy-facial-recognition.html\" title=\"\">Clearview AI<\/a> and <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/05\/04\/tech\/pimeyes-facial-recognition\/index.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">PimEyes<\/a>, start-ups that have scraped photos from the public web, including from Facebook and from its sister app, Instagram.<br \/>In Meta\u2019s blog post, Mr. Pesenti wrote that facial recognition\u2019s \u201clong-term role in society needs to be debated in the open\u201d and that the company \u201cwill continue engaging in that conversation and working with the civil society groups and regulators who are leading this discussion.\u201d<br \/>Meta has discussed adding facial recognition capabilities to a future product. In an internal meeting in February, an employee asked if the company would let people \u201cmark their faces as unsearchable\u201d if future versions of a planned smart glasses device incorporated facial recognition technology, according to attendees. The meeting was <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/ryanmac\/facebook-considers-facial-recognition-smart-glasses\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">first reported by BuzzFeed News<\/a>.<br \/>In the meeting, Andrew Bosworth, a longtime company executive who will become Meta\u2019s chief technology officer next year, told employees that facial recognition technology had real benefits but acknowledged its risks, according to attendees and <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210315201231\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/boztank\/status\/1365072180329865222\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">his tweets<\/a>. In September, the company introduced <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/09\/technology\/facebook-wayfarer-stories-smart-glasses.html\" title=\"\">a pair of glasses<\/a> with a camera, speakers and a computer processing chip in partnership with Ray-Ban; it did not include facial recognition capabilities.<br \/>\u201cWe\u2019re having discussions externally and internally about the potential benefits and harms,\u201d Mr. Grosse, the Meta spokesman, said. \u201cWe\u2019re meeting with policymakers, civil society organizations and privacy advocates from around the world to fully understand their perspectives before introducing this type of technology into any future products.\u201d<br \/>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/11\/02\/technology\/facebook-facial-recognition.html\">source<\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AdvertisementSupported bySaying it wants \u201cto find the right balance\u201d with the technology, the social network will delete the face scan data of more than one billion users.Send any friend a storyAs a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.By Kashmir Hill and Ryan MacTo hear more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow1sXXCw:productID":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}