After three years, Meta brings back facial recognition for optional use

New Delhi: Three years after a data privacy controversy forced Meta Platforms to discontinue its facial recognition feature, the Mark Zuckerberg-led parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp is reviving the controversial technology. But this time, it’s rolling it out very carefully, slowly, and only for some very selective purposes.

David Agranovich, director of global security policy at Meta, said the company “views facial recognition as a powerful tool for verifying identity and preventing fraud.” Mint on Monday. The company will roll out the technology to prevent impersonation of public figures and recover hacked, stolen and suspended accounts in most regions where Meta is present.

“In 2021, we shut down our facial recognition system, in part due to incomplete regulation of its use. While the debate around this technology continues to evolve, we are actively working with regulators to lead discussions about it,” Agra Norwich said. “We are now individually reviewing the technology we use to maintain privacy and security, and ahead of rolling out the pilot we have discussed how to implement it with regulators and policymakers around the world.”

Meta also confirmed that no third-party entities will be involved in reviewing facial data associated with users as part of the pilot. It will begin notifying selected public figures, mostly those whose identities have been used in impersonation scams, to seek their consent for the use of their facial data. Agranowicz said “the actual implementation will take place in the coming weeks.”

Once the user gives permission, the facial data will be run against ads flagged as suspicious scams by Meta’s proprietary artificial intelligence algorithm, which is used to sift through the millions of ads on its platform. Agranovich said users will be able to “voluntarily opt out” of the program.

Closed 2021

In November 2021, Jerome Pesenti, Meta’s former vice president of artificial intelligence (AI), announced that the company would stop widespread use of facial recognition technology to tag people on the Internet. The decision comes a month after the company changed its name from Facebook to Meta, representing an orchestrated effort by Zuckerberg to distance himself and his company from the Cambridge Analytica scandal and pointing to the widespread use of personal data to generate Whistleblower leaks for commercial interests. income.

Since then, Zuckerberg has focused on the Metaverse and short-form video—although targeted advertising remains a core part of Meta’s revenue model.

The company said it was taking an extremely cautious approach. “The use of facial recognition will regularly go through an internal privacy and risk review process. We have internal experts in various fields contributing to this,” Agranowicz said on Monday. “We do not use facial data for any purpose other than a one-time fraud verification process. We also immediately delete any facial data generated from advertising regardless of whether our systems find a match.”

According to him, the company “shares information where appropriate with government agencies and law enforcement agencies for the purpose of investigating and prosecuting criminal fraudsters — because we know, frankly, that criminal penalties are far greater than what we can penalties imposed”.

Comply with legal requirements

Legal and policy experts say Meta’s current stance is consistent with Indian law and recognizes the need for a consent mechanism regardless of the application.

“To use personality rights, consent must be sought through contractual clauses. NS Nappinai, senior Supreme Court lawyer and founder of Cyber ​​Saathi, said Meta appears to be resorting to such means. He said Meta must ensure “purpose” while using facial recognition limit”.

“The Delhi High Court has repeatedly reaffirmed the protection of personality rights and defined the safeguards,” she explained. “The current situation appears to be one in which facial recognition data is used to protect the public’s personality rights and, therefore, caution must be exercised to ensure that the data is not used beyond the stated purposes.”

A senior lawyer at a top law firm in New Delhi, who requested anonymity citing attorney-client privilege, said that even under current Indian law, biometrics are classified as “sensitive” personal data, which is inconsistent with “Normal” personal data has a different level of importance. “But we do not whitelist or blacklist facial data use or geolocation, although we do allow its use while stating that any entity that accesses the data must comply with regulations that maintain records of data use,” the official said. “To this extent, Meta’s purposes are consistent with the country’s current regulations.”

Nappinai and the above-mentioned lawyers also emphasized the need for urgent implementation of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 to avoid a legal vacuum in the use of facial recognition technology.