how to:How to Disable Facebook’s Facial Recognition Feature

Posted by Rachel Silver in Build Awareness , Facebook Activism, Stay Safe and Anonymous Online, Desktop Digital Security, Mobile Digital Security
originally posted on September 27, 2011

Facebook's facial recognition technology allows people uploading photos to tag pictures based on Facebook's suggestions for who they might be. According to the Guardian:

The tool runs all photos uploaded to the social networking site through a programme and identifies the user's friends on each picture. There was an outcry when it was rolled out in June to more than 500m members worldwide, though users can opt out of the automatic tagging, Facebook can still gather and store (indefinitely) all photos added to the site.  

Facebook's more than 500 million users have been automatically included in the database, but the company is allowing each person to choose whether to be identified by toggling a pane in the account's privacy settings. Facial recognition could be dangerous for activists (or bystanders) participating in a rally or protest in a country where the government is prone to violent crackdowns on civilian protest. This video from the Electronic Frontier Foundation will teach you how to disable Facebook's facial recognition feature.

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