06 Mar Face the Facts: Facebook’s New Face Recognition Features
Technology has made it effortless to learn more about people on social media, give us suggestions based on our browsing habits, show us advertisements that reflect our interests, and much more. Facebook has started incorporating face recognition technology into their platform to enhance user experience, but also strengthen identity security.
What are the new features?
If you are a Facebook user, you may have seen a post in your News Feed to notify you of these changes. The social platform stated they are “adding more ways to use face recognition besides just suggesting tags. For example,
face recognition technology can do things like:
- Find photos you’re in but haven’t been tagged
- Help protect you from strangers using your photo
- Tell people with visual impairments who’s in your photo or video”
You can turn the setting on or off at any time, as Facebook likes to give users options when they roll out new updates for convenience and a level of personalization.
The Catfish Generation
Catfish – a popular term that surfaced when online dating gained popularity and also the name of one of
MTV’s hit television shows – helps individuals who have only spoken or interacted online. Most of the cases on the show demonstrate someone impersonating another individual by creating a fake profile with someone else’s picture. We think Facebook’s new features could help bring the amount of impersonating profiles down though we are sure there will always be a workaround.
The platform notifies users if someone else is using their picture – one of the first moves a catfisher usually makes to build a fake profile. Nev and Max, the two
Catfish: The TV Show hosts, use Facebook in every episode to conduct some of their research. It becomes effortless for them to find fake profiles, points of contact, and ways of getting the information they need for the success of the show. According to
Mashable, there are “as many as 270 million of the platform’s 2.1-billion-strong user base [that] could be fraudulent or duplicated – a population verging on the size of the United States.” We are optimistic that this feature, if turned on, could benefit users in better managing their identities online and bring down the number of fake profiles over time.
Customer and Client Data
Some articles are calling the feature creepy, but we think it’s helpful, especially for the vast majority of people unaware of their identity being stolen or altered someway online. It can also help you if your grandmother doesn’t tag you in an embarrassing photo that surfaces on Facebook.
Regardless of how it helps users, it is doing something even greater behind the scenes. And that’s finding out more information about users. Facebook and other social media platforms can easily grab data from user profiles and their browsing habits. Consistent technological advancements are making it easier to learn more about social media users. Thus, in turn, making it easier for businesses to learn more about their customers.
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