Facebook Rolls Out Auto Facial Recognition Photo Tagging

Posted on Dec 16 2010 - 8:02pm by Richard Sharp

If rumours are true then the arduous task of tagging photos on Facebook may be a thing of the past. A brand new system is set to be filtered through to US users over the new few weeks that will automate the whole process by identifying an individual’s face and using that data to tag other photos, so basically facial recognition of photographs.  

The new addition was explained by Facebook “When you or a friend upload new photos, we use face recognition software — similar to that found in many photo editing tools — to match your new photos to other photos you’re tagged in. We group similar photos together and, whenever possible, suggest the name of the friend in the photos.”

The one important question that many people will have is ‘can I opt out of it?’ In short, yes you can. So if you don’t want your pictures to be part of the tag suggestions you can simply visit your privacy settings and switch it off. This won’t stop people manually tagging photos of you but will stop mass ‘auto tagging’.


Facebook has yet to release any details on when this technology will come to the UK and the rest of the world.


Do you like the sound of ‘tag suggestions’ or are you glad users can opt out if they so wish?

1 Comment so far. Feel free to join this conversation.

  1. Jimmy Adams December 17, 2010 at 7:52 am - Reply

    I think this is going to be completely worthless. Facebook just seems to be getting less and less secure by the day. TThese new features will just make facebook worse. I have quit facebook and am currently looking at Diaspora. This too has issues and i am waiting for the launch of MyCube. Hopefully this lives up to its promise

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