Skip to content
Subscriber Only

Facebook to Shut Down Use of Facial Recognition Technology

  • Company to delete more than 1 billion face ‘templates’
  • Social network is making the change for privacy reasons
Bloomberg business news
WATCH: Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. will no longer use facial recognition for photos and videos shared to the social network. Kurt Wagner reports.(Source: Bloomberg)
Updated on

Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. will no longer use facial recognition for photos and videos shared to the company’s flagship social network, saying it needs to weigh the benefits against growing concerns about the technology.

The social media giant has used facial recognition since 2010 to encourage people to tag friends or family members in photos and videos, and to alert people if another user uploads a picture that they’re in. It eventually added some privacy constraints, and in 2017 it let people opt out of facial recognition. In 2019 Facebook turned off the feature by default, though users could choose to turn it on.