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It's called Photo Magic: "By recognizing your Facebook friends in the photos you take (just like when tagging or sharing photos on Facebook), Messenger can cre

It's called Photo Magic: "By recognizing your Facebook friends in the photos you take (just like when tagging or sharing photos on Facebook), Messenger can create a group thread for you to share the photos with those friends in just two taps." https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/12/messenger-adds-new-features-for-sharing-during-the-holidays/ https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/12/messenger-adds-new-feat... http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/9/9696760/facebook-messenger-photo-sharing-face-recognition http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/9/9696760/facebook-messenger... You can opt-out by turning off tagging suggestions: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=timeline&section=suggestions&view https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=timeline&section=sugge...

chinathrow 10y ago
That should be opt-in. What a fucked up feature. Edit: I don't give any of my friends consent to use that feature - yet the would still scan my face. How can this even be legal.
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  Lax data privacy laws in the US (compared to Europe). Lobby your congressperson to fix it.
  - jgalt212 10y ago
    Congress is broke and the tech companies know it and optimize against this and will continue to make hay while the sun shines (i.e. before the US produces any effective consumer privacy legislation).
    - toomuchtodo 10y ago
      It doesn't cost anything to enact legislation. Congress is a sunk cost.
      - Spooky23 10y ago
        Funny. Congress cannot afford the lawyers needed to write that kind of legislation. The lobbyists write the laws they advocate for.
        toomuchtodo 10y ago
        Strangely enough, Elizabeth Warren was able to put together comprehensive legislation to work towards ending Intuit's (to name the largest offender) corporate welfare [1] in the tax prep software space. Or is there an anti-private corporation/pro IRS tax prep lobbyist I'm missing? [1] https://www.warren.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1110 https://www.warren.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1110
        Spooky23 10y ago
        I don't follow the sausagemaking process in DC, so I don't precisely know in that instance, but my guess would be a public advocacy group. In my state legislature, which I follow, it's really common for various groups to write sample legislation. Everything from duck habitat preservation to open source software.
  - plainOldText 10y ago
    You don't need to take it to the congress; just stop using the services of a company whose practices you don't agree with. If more people would do this, maybe the company will get the message and change its practices.
    - toomuchtodo 10y ago
      Pragmatically, its easier for me to hold congresspeoples' feet to the fire.
    - takeda 10y ago
      This information is too valuable to dissuade companies from collecting and using it. You can't do much as an user if everyone is doing it. In many situations you might not even know that you're being tracked, there already technologies that track you in public places. IMO this is something that should be regulated.
- maaku 10y ago
  The article says it is opt-in.
  - chinathrow 10y ago
    I saw that now too. Opt-in isn't enough here, the user of the messenger app should get consent from all folks on those pictures before auto-uploading anything. What another trove of data for FB. Disgusting.
    - sp332 10y ago
      Facebook lets you opt-out of being tagged, which is about all they can do. The photos don't being to you, plus they're not going to know that you're in a photo until after it gets uploaded.
      - Kristine1975 10y ago
        >which is about all they can do They could not use facial recognition in the first place.
- lazzlazzlazz 10y ago
  It's opt-in. Do research before experiencing moral outrage.
chinathrow 10y ago
I am still shocked about that feature. The messenger app is installed by millions of people. Does anyone know how the app does the friend recognition? Local on the phone or on FBs servers?
- puddintane 10y ago
  Facebooks servers. Phones could not be capable of doing that much facial recognition that quick. Plus that bandwidth to grab all your friends images to compare to would be a metric ton of images given some selfie-addicts.
unicornporn 10y ago
The other day tinfoil me finally gave in and installed the Instagram app. Marshmallow gives me more granular permission control, but naturally I had to give it access to the file system to be able to upload pictures. Knowing about their ways with Messenger, I guess it's only a matter of time before Instagram scans my whole phone for images and videos to perform biometric analysis.
- harryf 10y ago
  It gets even more fun to consider all the apps using the Facebook SDK (which is basically everyone - https://gist.github.com/ryanolsonk/e33bf9e89677da9fe8ce https://gist.github.com/ryanolsonk/e33bf9e89677da9fe8ce ). Gave any of those apps access to your photos ?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
retox 10y ago
This is actually terrifying to me.

chinathrow 10y ago

That should be opt-in. What a fucked up feature. Edit: I don't give any of my friends consent to use that feature - yet the would still scan my face. How can this even be legal.

toomuchtodo 10y ago
Lax data privacy laws in the US (compared to Europe). Lobby your congressperson to fix it.
- jgalt212 10y ago
  Congress is broke and the tech companies know it and optimize against this and will continue to make hay while the sun shines (i.e. before the US produces any effective consumer privacy legislation).
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    It doesn't cost anything to enact legislation. Congress is a sunk cost.
    - Spooky23 10y ago
      Funny. Congress cannot afford the lawyers needed to write that kind of legislation. The lobbyists write the laws they advocate for.
      - toomuchtodo 10y ago
        Strangely enough, Elizabeth Warren was able to put together comprehensive legislation to work towards ending Intuit's (to name the largest offender) corporate welfare [1] in the tax prep software space. Or is there an anti-private corporation/pro IRS tax prep lobbyist I'm missing? [1] https://www.warren.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1110 https://www.warren.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1110
        Spooky23 10y ago
        I don't follow the sausagemaking process in DC, so I don't precisely know in that instance, but my guess would be a public advocacy group. In my state legislature, which I follow, it's really common for various groups to write sample legislation. Everything from duck habitat preservation to open source software.
- plainOldText 10y ago
  You don't need to take it to the congress; just stop using the services of a company whose practices you don't agree with. If more people would do this, maybe the company will get the message and change its practices.
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    Pragmatically, its easier for me to hold congresspeoples' feet to the fire.
  - takeda 10y ago
    This information is too valuable to dissuade companies from collecting and using it. You can't do much as an user if everyone is doing it. In many situations you might not even know that you're being tracked, there already technologies that track you in public places. IMO this is something that should be regulated.
maaku 10y ago
The article says it is opt-in.
- chinathrow 10y ago
  I saw that now too. Opt-in isn't enough here, the user of the messenger app should get consent from all folks on those pictures before auto-uploading anything. What another trove of data for FB. Disgusting.
  - sp332 10y ago
    Facebook lets you opt-out of being tagged, which is about all they can do. The photos don't being to you, plus they're not going to know that you're in a photo until after it gets uploaded.
    - Kristine1975 10y ago
      >which is about all they can do They could not use facial recognition in the first place.
lazzlazzlazz 10y ago
It's opt-in. Do research before experiencing moral outrage.

chinathrow 10y ago

I am still shocked about that feature. The messenger app is installed by millions of people. Does anyone know how the app does the friend recognition? Local on the phone or on FBs servers?

puddintane 10y ago
Facebooks servers. Phones could not be capable of doing that much facial recognition that quick. Plus that bandwidth to grab all your friends images to compare to would be a metric ton of images given some selfie-addicts.

unicornporn 10y ago

The other day tinfoil me finally gave in and installed the Instagram app. Marshmallow gives me more granular permission control, but naturally I had to give it access to the file system to be able to upload pictures. Knowing about their ways with Messenger, I guess it's only a matter of time before Instagram scans my whole phone for images and videos to perform biometric analysis.

harryf 10y ago
It gets even more fun to consider all the apps using the Facebook SDK (which is basically everyone - https://gist.github.com/ryanolsonk/e33bf9e89677da9fe8ce https://gist.github.com/ryanolsonk/e33bf9e89677da9fe8ce ). Gave any of those apps access to your photos ?
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

retox 10y ago

This is actually terrifying to me.