Facebook will soon be stepping up its efforts to bother its users by using facial recognition technology to provide yet another alert message. The social media website already notifies its users for everything from new messages to new posts by friends.
Reports indicate that Facebook is going to test a feature in its Android app that will be able to scan the recent images of a user for photos that resemble their Facebook friends. When the facial recognition software identifies a match, it will kindly ask the user if they would like for the photos to be shared with the identified party. The feature is being called Photo Magic.
The new feature will be tested in Australia first, and if the reception is positive, it will soon make its way to the United States. And for those of you using iOS instead of Android, don’t worry, as the program will soon make its way to iPhones as well.
The picture scanning feature is not only restricted to Facebook photos. The program will scan the entire photo collection of your mobile phone. Even those private photos that you don’t want to be seen by anyone will be accessed. And you can be sure that Facebook will bring a dialogue box asking if you want to share these images with your identified friends.
Making matters even worse is that early reports of the program indicate that it causes Facebook to drain more battery power from your phone than it already did. It sounds like Facebook just keeps finding ways to shoot itself in the foot.
Luckily, there is an option to opt-out of the program so that they won’t be annoyed by the frequent messages. Users can also opt-out of the program so that their faces will not be detected in the photos of others. These options are likely to reduce some of the privacy concerns. Still, the new feature will certainly cause distress to some privacy-conscious users.
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