Facebook is shutting down its facial recognition system - community reactions:
My jaw dropped to the floor when I got this news. Facebook is shutting down the facial recognition system that it introduced more than 10 years ago and deleting the faceprints of 1 billion people: https://t.co/kzc9PhFffB
— Kashmir Hill (@kashhill) November 2, 2021
Why now? Meta's VP of AI, @an_open_mind, says it is because of the "many concerns about the place of facial recognition technology in society." Facebook/Meta's post about the decision: https://t.co/dFksAnMntg
— Kashmir Hill (@kashhill) November 2, 2021
Privacy advocates we called all basically said, 'wow, that's great news.' "Facebook getting out of the face recognition business is a pivotal moment in the growing national discomfort with this technology." - @EFF's @Adam_D_Schwartz.
— Kashmir Hill (@kashhill) November 2, 2021
But this is a 'gone, for now' situation. As my partner on this story, @RMac18, reported just months ago, Facebook has discussed the "pros and cons" of putting facial recognition capabilities into its smart glasses. https://t.co/kzc9PhFffB pic.twitter.com/smO0KXNQMU
— Kashmir Hill (@kashhill) November 2, 2021
This is the end of an era. I remember covering the introduction of face recognition for photo tagging on Facebook back in 2010(!) when I was a baby privacy blogger. I said it wasn't a big deal! And made a funny video about it: https://t.co/OFQldmEoHp. OMG I was so wrong.
— Kashmir Hill (@kashhill) November 2, 2021
Since 2010, face recognition cost Facebook $650 million in Illinois & was part of a $5 billion settlement with the F.T.C. @EPICprivacy's @AlanInDC said the drawn-out episode is proof we need better privacy laws & a federal privacy regulator.
— Kashmir Hill (@kashhill) November 2, 2021
END THREAD https://t.co/kzc9PhFffB
3) Their work provided crucial ammunition for civil liberties, racial justice, and human rights organizations and networks fighting against unconsented facial recognition technologies. Too many to list but @EFF @EPICprivacy @ACLU_Mass @Data4BlackLives @fightfortheftr @AJLUnited
— Slasher Costanza-Chop (@schock) November 2, 2021
4) The devil is in the details. Are we sure FB (Meta) will actually delete the faceprints, rather than farm them off to another company or hand them over to intelligence agencies first? Who is going to verify? Since they have the face images, what's to stop them from re-creating?
— Slasher Costanza-Chop (@schock) November 2, 2021
5) Again this is a win. And FB/META should be commended for this decision. And also, too, this doesn't let them off the hook for the many, many harms they have done, and continue to do, to people all around the world ...
— Slasher Costanza-Chop (@schock) November 2, 2021
... as activists have been saying for many, many years, and as the entire world now understands due to the recent leaks of internal documents.
— Slasher Costanza-Chop (@schock) November 2, 2021
So this is great, but it's not a 'clean slate.'
The FacePurge should continue! Years of ongoing pressure internally and externally has been instrumental in pushing for the deletion of faceprints collected clandestinely. @AJLUnited @fightfortheftr @Data4BlackLives @ACLU_Mass @EFF @epic @ColorOfChange @mediajustice 1/n https://t.co/FSe976FQeb
— Joy Buolamwini (@jovialjoy) November 2, 2021
And so many campaigns around the world have led to this victory. The work as you know is far from over. Legislative action is as necessary as ever to continue to fight for algorithmic justice. We need an even bigger surge of FacePurges. 2/n
— Joy Buolamwini (@jovialjoy) November 2, 2021
@IBM @Amazon @Google @Microsoft will you follow suit? 3/n
— Joy Buolamwini (@jovialjoy) November 2, 2021
"it will not eliminate the software that powers the system, which is an advanced algorithm called DeepFace. The company has also not ruled out incorporating facial recognition technology into future products (...)" https://t.co/mOj2vPkrZ5
— Dr. Mona Sloane (@mona_sloane) November 2, 2021
Great news, I guess, but they've already extracted tremendous value from/built additional tools on top of them 🤷♀️ https://t.co/qjwYNmBjT9
— Elizabeth M. Renieris (@hackylawyER) November 2, 2021
This is too little, too late, and strategically timed to take the heat off.
— Elizabeth M. Renieris (@hackylawyER) November 2, 2021
Per the blog post, Facebook/Meta is deleting "individual facial recognition templates," what about the hashes? pic.twitter.com/xjjJQifVk0
— Elizabeth M. Renieris (@hackylawyER) November 2, 2021
To put this in context:
— Deb Raji (@rajiinio) November 2, 2021
Facebook pioneered the use of deep learning for facial recognition with the DeepFace model in 2014, because they had more face data than anyone else at the time (https://t.co/s5QPHJSli4).
For them to now (finally) reject this technology is a big deal. https://t.co/x9QqnuBDGa
Amazing news. Hard won and hopefully just the beginning of the many things that need to change. https://t.co/0Nk51Ju9t3
— Jenny Toomey (Ford Foundation) (@jennytoomey) November 2, 2021
So Facebook is deleting one billion facial recognition scans, but it's keeping DeepFace, the model that is trained on all those faces. Note that "the company has also not ruled out incorporating facial recognition into future products." Very meta. 👀 https://t.co/8ntPg5Hyf9
— Dr. Kate Crawford (@katecrawford) November 2, 2021
Let's not forget that this move was largely the result of that $5 billion @FTC fine from 2019 and last year's Illinois BIPA class action, leading to a $650 million settlement. We can't just leave big tech to their own devices (pun intended). https://t.co/GI47rQWBEe
— Patrick K. Lin (@patrickklin__) November 2, 2021
It’s worth noting FB reintroduced this tool to Europe in 2018 following consultations with Ireland’s data regulator on how to make it “GDPR compliant” - after it had been banned since 2010.
— Nicholas Vinocur (@NicholasVinocur) November 2, 2021
FB have now shut it down even though Dublin and other DPAs had no real issue with it. https://t.co/C7OAX2TItO
You know, I didn't think this was possible. Congratulations to all the people---the academics, the activists, the artists---who have pushed back so effectively against facial recognition. https://t.co/oIYR7Vwv0Y
— Ryan Calo (@rcalo) November 2, 2021
