Facebook features in the news for broadly two reasons: first, the way it has become a staple in our lives and its growing market value, and second, its repeated violations of users? privacy. It?s in the news again now, for the second reason. Tagging photos on Facebook is an onerous and time consuming task. Facebook, to tackle this, recently introduced a photo tagging feature based on facial recognition. Basically, when you upload a photo, Facebook will scan the faces, and if it recognises them as being those of your friends on Facebook, it will suggest you tag them. On the face of it, it?s a great feature. The problem lies in the fact that Facebook didn?t tell anybody it was implementing this feature, something most users take issue with. In fact, EU data protection regulators are investigating the matter to see whether there has been a breach of users? privacy. Now, similar features are present in Google?s Picasa and Apple?s iPhoto but, in their case, the facial recognition information is stored on users? computers, not on online servers, as is the case with Facebook. Earlier, too, Facebook has come under the scanner for assuming users want to share their personal information with everybody, following an opt-out-if-you-don?t-want-it, rather than an opt-in policy. A case in point was the Facebook Beacon feature, which shared your online transaction history with your friends. Again, it was initially an opt-out feature, before all the hue and cry compelled Facebook to change it.
There is no denying that the facial recognition feature is a useful one?according to a company spokeswoman, more than 100 million photos are tagged each day. But Facebook must understand that it should allow users to judge the usefulness of a product for themselves, not slip it into their accounts when they?re not looking. It reinforces the growing belief that Facebook is just turning creepy.