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Home / News / Facebook dumps facial recognition in the EU… for now

Facebook dumps facial recognition in the EU… for now

The social network removes facial recognition in the wake of an Irish investigation – but plots a return in the future

Following an investigation into its practices in the EU, Facebook has removed facial recognition from its photos. The “Tag Suggest” feature, which automatically suggests name tags for photos based on the faces therein, will be removed for new users, and for existing EU-based users from mid-October.

The report comes from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, and makes several recommendations to bring Facebook’s policies in line with EU privacy regulations. Today it announced that the social network had gone along with the report and implemented the majority of recommendations.

However, it may not be gone for long – or at least may yet return in another form. A statement from Facebook describes Tag Suggest as a “useful tool” that it hopes to bring back in the future. Watch this space, privacy fans.

[via TechCrunch]

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Profile image of Dan Grabham Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home

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