Facebook takes an important step backwards in the use of facial recognition on its social network and an important step forward towards a fair and transparent relationship with its users. And it can be asserted in no uncertain terms: it will be to the benefit of both parties. After the obstacles found following the first decomposed implementation, Zuckerberg’s group now seems to want to do things in greater order, respecting the limits imposed by the legislator and respecting the user’s will.

The rollout of facial recognition news starts today globally and will be completed within the next few weeks, so it is destined to involve the entire community only within a few years. This is a double track release: on the one hand the users who had already activated the service, on the other those who impact you for the first time. The most important aspect of this mechanism is that facial recognition will in any case only be activated following an explicit opt-in, thus without any forcing towards the user. Those who want to have their images uploaded, can simply activate the service and manage their tags with awareness; whoever wants to stay out of it will have nothing else to do, since by default the option will be disabled.

Facial recognition: how it works

The recognition replaces the current “suggestion tag” and this overturns the table: now it is not the third user who must tag, but the system procures the correlations while waiting for each user to evaluate whether to tag himself. A conscious choice by everyone, therefore: only and only in this way can tags and correlations be born.

https://www.facebook.com/facebook/videos/873386789711267/

For those who already have active facial recognition

Those who already have active facial recognition will be able to manage their photos with three choices:

• self-tagging, spontaneously correlating the image to one’s own identity
• do not self-tag, avoiding the direct correlation between image and account
• report the image to request removal

On your notice board you will simply receive notification of your opt-in, in order to be fully aware of what is happening in this transition phase.

For those who do not already have active facial recognition

Those who have never activated face recognition before will find a notification on the social network that suggests the novelty. At this point the user can choose whether to activate the whole or not, with a very important detail: there is no silence-assent and therefore, if the user does not explicitly consent to activation, the facial recognition will remain disabled. If Facebook wants to bring users to this dimension it will therefore have to procure them one by one, suggesting important related advantages, but without ever forcing the hand about the spontaneous, transparent and explicit choice by the individual.