Facebook Facial Recognition
| Facebook Facial Recognition | |
|---|---|
| Short Title | Facebook Scanning Biometric Information from Photographs |
| Location | Global |
| Date | 2015 |
| Solove Harm | Identification, Interrogation |
| Information | Identifying, Physical Characteristics |
| Threat Actors | |
| Individuals | |
| Affected | Individuals in photos uploaded to Facebook |
| High Risk Groups | |
| Tangible Harms | |
Facebook was found to be scanning, processing and storing biometric information from users' photographs without providing proper notice and without consent from individuals on photos.
Description
In 2015 Facebook introduced a default setting, which was found to be scanning, processing and storing biometric information from uploaded photographs. The technology was used in the Tag Suggestions feature and was supposed to help users identify their friends in the pictures. Facebook claimed an image of a person in a photograph is not a biometric identifier because there is no physical presence of an individual during the process of capturing. This was a default setting introduced in December 2017 for all Facebook users. Facebook failed to properly notify users about its facial recognition practices and they did not acquire consent from individuals on photos.
This can be seen as a form of Identification. Facebook was identifying some geometry of the face on a photograph that represented a person, which allowed linking information to particular individuals.
One can also interpret this as Interrogation: Facebook interrogated information (from photos) to try and infer more information about individuals - to develop a face geometry and identify an individual from others.
Facebook was sued under the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) and the court ruled, that Facebook's actions violated BIPA because a scan of face geometry from an image in a photograph is a biometric identifier.
After the outcome of the lawsuit in late 2019 Facebook changed the default settings and can no longer scan faces on photographs by default.
Laws and Regulations
(740_ILCS_§_14/)._Biometric_Information_Privacy_Act.
Sources
https://themarkup.org/ask-the-markup/2020/03/17/fingerprint-timeclock-biometrics-work
https://www.eff.org/document/2018-12-17-patel-v-fb-9c-amicus-brief
https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/3/20847650/facebook-facial-recognition-setting-default-opt-in
https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/8/20792326/facebook-facial-recognition-appeals-decision-damages-payment-court