Facebook is planning to incorporate its users’ profile photos into its facial recognition database, expanding the scope of its technology.
The ‘Tag Suggest’ feature uses facial recognition technology, which involves labelling or ‘tagging’ friends and contacts, to accelerate the photo tagging process.
The changes come at a time when Facebook and other Internet firms’ privacy practices are under investigation, following disclosures of a US government snooping programme.
Facebook chief privacy officer Erin Egan said:"Our goal is to facilitate tagging so that people know when there are photos of them on our service," Egan said.
Facebook said users who are uncomfortable with facial recognition feature can avoid the Tag Suggest feature on the whole, while users’ public profile photo would not be added to the facial recognition database.
The technology also detects faces in newly uploaded photos by comparing them with the earlier tagged pictures.
Facebook said in a blogpost: "Our goal with this update is to explain our policies and practices more clearly."
"Over the next seven days, we will give people the chance to review and comment on these proposed updates."
