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Facebook turned on face recognition silently

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Re: Facebook turned on face recognition silently

#61
post #45

On a related note, FB seems to use the microphone, with permissions disabled, when the app isn’t even open, to listen in on our conversations and later advertise things it hears us talking about. I don’t have 100% proof of this but we’ve mentioned things we never googled or even put in our phones or computers and they are pretty specific (purple dress, tactile diaper bags, beer) and they come up the next day or two i…

Reply All made an episode on this: https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/109-facebook-spying

The episode was really good and stated that Facebook has at least 55,000 data points on any given individual, and when you have that kind of metadata on someone, it seems like parsing voice data would be inefficient and expensive in comparison to inferring information from those data points.

Re: Facebook turned on face recognition silently

#62

So, here's the weird catch-22. Or perhaps, the illusion of choice. There are two people who are in a photo. One wishes Facebook to use face recognition, the other does not. Facebook will run face recognition on the photo regardless, but how will they know who wants to be recognized, and who doesn't? Simply, they have a model of your face already trained. And they recognize you in photos--you have no say whether or no…

> how will they know who wants to be recognized, and who doesn't?

If they have enough data to recognize you, they will. They just won't tag you.

Re: Facebook turned on face recognition silently

#63

I am still waiting for this feature in the UK, but European courts keep blocking it. It pisses me off: I should be able to opt-in if I want to.

>I should be able to opt-in if I want to. As the top comment suggests, if Facebook runs face recognition on pictures of you and those pictures contain other people, there is no guarantee that they have opted into the program as well. You wouldn't just be making a choice for yourself.

Well, either Facebook doesn't have training data for the opt-out users, or they do, and they use it to ensure that those users aren't publicly tagged (my paranoia says that they're still tagged internally, regardless of the option that's selected).

Either way, it would only need to identify those users who have actually opted in.

Re: Facebook turned on face recognition silently

#64

On a related note, FB seems to use the microphone, with permissions disabled, when the app isn’t even open, to listen in on our conversations and later advertise things it hears us talking about. I don’t have 100% proof of this but we’ve mentioned things we never googled or even put in our phones or computers and they are pretty specific (purple dress, tactile diaper bags, beer) and they come up the next day or two i…

As an app developer, I don't want to say this is impossible, loading and abusing private libraries has been done in the past. It just seems so unlikely. And it seems like if proved (decrypting network traffic from mobile device?) would destroy Facebook's image w/ customers. I think more than likely the talking about a certain subject makes the ads stand out more than they would have. It's like, researching to buy a n…

> And it seems like if proved (decrypting network traffic from mobile device?) would destroy Facebook's image w/ customers.

Would it, though? Facebook gets caught with its pants down standing in front of a row of bent-over users pretty regularly, and for the most part those users seem happy or naive enough to stay where they are, or at best just migrate to other Facebook-owned services like Instagram/WhatsApp.

Re: Facebook turned on face recognition silently

#65
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a "Face Recognition" tab that's new to the settings page since the last time I went through disabling things. For me, it shows up on the left side right under "Language".

Okay, I don't see it. Maybe its a USA-only thing? (Europe here.)

Nope, I'm in Europe and got it. Try using this link:

https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=facerec&section=face_r...

Re: Facebook turned on face recognition silently

#66
post #31
post #24

Here is the facebook site explaining how this works/will work. https://www.facebook.com/about/basics/manage-your-privacy/fa...

I have to assume that this UX is intentionally awful: Go to Settings. Go to More. Tap Privacy Shortcuts. Tap More Settings. Tap Face Recognition. Tap Do you want Facebook to be able to recognize you in photos and videos? Select No if you don't want to let Facebook recognize you in photos and videos. Also, this set of steps doesn't work on the desktop browser. I don't see More or Privacy Shortcuts in My Settings, only…

I got this notification in my news feed last night and now I can't find the option to shut it off on desktop or mobile. No idea what is going on.

Re: Facebook turned on face recognition silently

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why I do not want anybody to make any pictures of me, especially not if they are active on social media. There are exactly two pictures of me online, the one is 30 years old, the other about 10. The quickest way to get me pissed off is to point a camera at me.

Do you spray paint all of the CCTVs on your daily route?

Do you always ask dumb questions?

It's one thing to have CCTV active in places where you visit, quite another to have the social sharing lemmings plaster your face all over the web for all to see and datamine. What I want and what I get are not always the same things, but I'll do my level best to influence that which I can influence.

Here, two older blogposts that may give you an idea of where I'm coming from:

https://jacquesmattheij.com/if-you-have-nothing-to-hide

https://jacquesmattheij.com/trackers

For the downvoters and flaggers: do you really believe parent asked his question in good faith?

Re: Facebook turned on face recognition silently

#68

So, here's the weird catch-22. Or perhaps, the illusion of choice. There are two people who are in a photo. One wishes Facebook to use face recognition, the other does not. Facebook will run face recognition on the photo regardless, but how will they know who wants to be recognized, and who doesn't? Simply, they have a model of your face already trained. And they recognize you in photos--you have no say whether or no…

Which is why I do not want anybody to make any pictures of me, especially not if they are active on social media. There are exactly two pictures of me online, the one is 30 years old, the other about 10. The quickest way to get me pissed off is to point a camera at me.

Out of curiosity, aside from emotional distress, what harm are you afraid of?

Re: Facebook turned on face recognition silently

#69

So, here's the weird catch-22. Or perhaps, the illusion of choice. There are two people who are in a photo. One wishes Facebook to use face recognition, the other does not. Facebook will run face recognition on the photo regardless, but how will they know who wants to be recognized, and who doesn't? Simply, they have a model of your face already trained. And they recognize you in photos--you have no say whether or no…

Welcome to an economy that is run like a game theory experiment not to service public economic interests

Quantophrenia in action

Re: Facebook turned on face recognition silently

#70

So, here's the weird catch-22. Or perhaps, the illusion of choice. There are two people who are in a photo. One wishes Facebook to use face recognition, the other does not. Facebook will run face recognition on the photo regardless, but how will they know who wants to be recognized, and who doesn't? Simply, they have a model of your face already trained. And they recognize you in photos--you have no say whether or no…

Which is why I do not want anybody to make any pictures of me, especially not if they are active on social media. There are exactly two pictures of me online, the one is 30 years old, the other about 10. The quickest way to get me pissed off is to point a camera at me.

I'm with you. But I'd also be worried about coming off as the angriest (or most paranoid) guy on earth. I probably already hold the title in my family.

What would be neat is a polite discreet social signal that politely discreetly signaled this to people with a camera. If you did it right, you might also get rich in a Pet Rock sort of way.

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