Facebook Able to Recognize You Without Seeing Your Face

facebook-and-facial-recognition

Peyton Garrett | @peetygarrett

As if Facebook's privacy settings are not already controversial enough, now they have created an algorithm that can recognize people in photos without seeing their faces.

As of right now, the algorithm is able to recognize faces with 83 percent accuracy. This is achieved by identifying hairdos, body shapes, postures, clothing and numerous other characteristics. The head of the Facebook Artificial Intelligence team explained, “There are a lot of cues we use. People have characteristic aspects, even if you look at them from the back. For example, you can recognize Mark Zuckerberg very easily because he always wears a gray T-shirt.”

Although most people are concerned about the algorithm robbing them of their privacy, some people think that it could potentially make privacy easier. Hypothetically, this tool would notify a person when a photo of them is uploaded. That way, if the photo is not something they want on the Internet, they can request for it to be taken down.

Facebook also recently released an app called Moments. Its main purpose is to group photos based on the date of the event where the photo was taken as well as the friends who were in the photo. The facial recognition used in this app is so controversial that it was actually banned in Europe.

This device works just like humans, as we can recognize our friends without seeing their faces. So the question is what's next? It seems that as technology becomes more advanced, it also becomes more human-like.

The race has already begun to see who can use facial recognition to create better products. It seems as though Facebook just achieved a leg up in this race, yet Google is in a close second. Google recently launched an app called Google Photos, which supports free unlimited storage and groups photos together. Although that is rather standard, this new app can also recognize your pets, which has never been done before.

What are your thoughts on facial recognition programs?