A Meta spokesperson declined to answer questions from BuzzFeed News about how that algorithm remains in use today. Last week, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg told Stratechery’s Ben Thompson that “one of the big new features” of Meta’s new Cambria headset “is around eye-tracking and face-tracking.” And while the platform has “turned off the service” that previously created facial profiles of Facebook users, the New York Times reported that the company is keeping the algorithm on which that service relied. The fact is: Meta intends to collect unique, identifying information about its users’ faces. For the moment, though, the company is leaving its options open.
Just because it can create those systems doesn’t mean it will. From this data, Meta will have the capacity to create identification and surveillance systems that are at least as powerful as the system it’s putting out to pasture. The company is shifting its focus to virtual reality, a face-worn technology that, by necessity, collects an enormous amount of data about its users. (Disclosure: In a previous life, I held policy positions at Facebook and Spotify.)įacebook's recent announcement that it is shutting off its controversial facial recognition system comes at a difficult time for the company, which is facing significant regulatory scrutiny after years of bad press recently inflamed by a high-profile whistleblower.īut the moment may also be an opportune one. And it is only one of many invasive data collection methods that may be coming to a metaverse near you. In a blog post, the company described the move as “one of the biggest shifts in facial recognition usage in the technology’s history.” On Twitter, outgoing CTO Mike Schroepfer and incoming CTO Andrew Bosworth, who previously oversaw Facebook’s Oculus virtual reality division, called the announcement a “ big deal” and a “ very important decision.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation deemed it “a testament to all the hard work activists have done to push back against this invasive technology.”īut a review of Meta and Facebook’s VR privacy policies, and the company’s answers to a detailed list of questions about them, suggest the company’s face identification technology isn’t going anywhere. On Monday morning, Meta - the company formerly known as Facebook - announced that it would be shutting down “the Face Recognition system on Facebook,” a technology that has been raising privacy alarms since it debuted.
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