4 ms·

The plaintiffs in the case argued that Facebook violated that law when it introduced the "tag suggestions" feature without gaining express consent from users.

The plaintiffs in the case argued that Facebook violated that law when it introduced the "tag suggestions" feature without gaining express consent from users. I'm going to step out on a limb here and say the outrage police are getting out of hand. Tag suggestions are incredibly useful. If I have a library of pictures (and I do), I want software to suggest tags for them. They're my pictures, FFS.

AdamTReineke 6y ago
I'm pretty sure it's because Facebook started suggesting that Alice should be tagged in Bob's photos without Alice's consent. They're Bob's photos but it's using Alice's likeness to suggest tagging her without her consent. Edit: And the law in Illinois is (to quote the article): 'The statute requires any entity that gathers biometric data—including fingerprints, voice prints, "hand or face geometry," and retinal or iris scans—to get informed consent from those individuals whose data it collects'
- blackoil 6y ago
  If I have a 4/8k video where I recorded voice and face of a person, do I need to get a consent or only when I extract it and use it as biometric data?
  - opnitro 6y ago
    depends on the state and the context, but yes: audio/video recordings without consent of both parties can be illegal.
- stickfigure 6y ago
  So in Illinois it's illegal to run face detection against my own photo library, the way iPhoto did 5 years ago?
  - eganist 6y ago
    Sounds like there's a difference between gathering prints (faceprints, fingerprints, voiceprints) that can be used to identify people v. simply identifying that something is a face, a fingertip, or a voice, which is what iPhoto did.
  - gputhrowaway630 6y ago
    From my understanding the distinction is whether or not personal data is being saved, so as long as iOS isn't saving/classifying specific 'faces' it's not illegal.
  - thedingwing 6y ago
    I think the difference is: iPhoto says "This is a face. Would you like to type in who it is?" And Alice would type in "Bob". Whereas Facebook uses Bob's profile information to say "Is this a photo of Bob?", leaking Bob's identity to Alice.
pseudalopex 6y ago
They aren't your faces. The law just requires consent. Calling names and swearing? Seems like you're outraged. Not them.
garbagetime 6y ago
I might be missing something here, but I don't think the usefulness is particularly relevant.
samatman 6y ago
I think you'll find that by uploading them to Facebook, they are Facebook's pictures as well, to a substantial and meaningful degree.
tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
That's fine, as long as the people whose biometric profiles facebook creates have consented.
throwaway667555 6y ago
Maybe you're forgetting how creepy it was when it first happened, back when cellphone cameras were just maturing past the potato phase? I remember the feeling of shock and invasion when one day, suddenly Facebook's computer started calling me and my friends by name. That feeling framed all my subsequent interactions with Facebook's burgeoning ad profiling and behavior prediction features, cloaked more artfully by FB after lesson learned not to headline their breakthroughs in computer vision. Boil we frogs on the march to normalization and surrender.
- jjav 6y ago
  > suddenly Facebook's computer started calling me and my friends by name Here's one creepy correlation horror story... I just started at a new job, so got a new email account in a new domain that I've never been associated with before. Last week I got an ipad as a gift, set it up with my personal account on my personal domain. Last few days, I start getting spam from apple on my work email about service offers for this new personal tablet!! Zero relationship between the accounts or domains! The only possible explanation is they're correlating the IP address and going by that. Very creepy.
- vharuck 6y ago
  I stopped using Facebook when I was looking around the HTML tags for an image (can't recall why) and noticed it listed keywords for the image. The keywords were lacking context and only mentioned objects and weather, so it was obvious the user didn't assign them. Facebook logging what's in photos is creepy enough, but the fact it was happening in the background was the worst.
  - ganeshkrishnan 6y ago
    Those are alt tags and useful information for people with low vision who use screen readers

AdamTReineke 6y ago

I'm pretty sure it's because Facebook started suggesting that Alice should be tagged in Bob's photos without Alice's consent. They're Bob's photos but it's using Alice's likeness to suggest tagging her without her consent. Edit: And the law in Illinois is (to quote the article): 'The statute requires any entity that gathers biometric data—including fingerprints, voice prints, "hand or face geometry," and retinal or iris scans—to get informed consent from those individuals whose data it collects'

blackoil 6y ago
If I have a 4/8k video where I recorded voice and face of a person, do I need to get a consent or only when I extract it and use it as biometric data?
- opnitro 6y ago
  depends on the state and the context, but yes: audio/video recordings without consent of both parties can be illegal.
stickfigure 6y ago
So in Illinois it's illegal to run face detection against my own photo library, the way iPhoto did 5 years ago?
- eganist 6y ago
  Sounds like there's a difference between gathering prints (faceprints, fingerprints, voiceprints) that can be used to identify people v. simply identifying that something is a face, a fingertip, or a voice, which is what iPhoto did.
- gputhrowaway630 6y ago
  From my understanding the distinction is whether or not personal data is being saved, so as long as iOS isn't saving/classifying specific 'faces' it's not illegal.
- thedingwing 6y ago
  I think the difference is: iPhoto says "This is a face. Would you like to type in who it is?" And Alice would type in "Bob". Whereas Facebook uses Bob's profile information to say "Is this a photo of Bob?", leaking Bob's identity to Alice.

pseudalopex 6y ago

They aren't your faces. The law just requires consent. Calling names and swearing? Seems like you're outraged. Not them.

garbagetime 6y ago

I might be missing something here, but I don't think the usefulness is particularly relevant.

samatman 6y ago

I think you'll find that by uploading them to Facebook, they are Facebook's pictures as well, to a substantial and meaningful degree.

tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago

That's fine, as long as the people whose biometric profiles facebook creates have consented.

throwaway667555 6y ago

Maybe you're forgetting how creepy it was when it first happened, back when cellphone cameras were just maturing past the potato phase? I remember the feeling of shock and invasion when one day, suddenly Facebook's computer started calling me and my friends by name. That feeling framed all my subsequent interactions with Facebook's burgeoning ad profiling and behavior prediction features, cloaked more artfully by FB after lesson learned not to headline their breakthroughs in computer vision. Boil we frogs on the march to normalization and surrender.

jjav 6y ago
> suddenly Facebook's computer started calling me and my friends by name Here's one creepy correlation horror story... I just started at a new job, so got a new email account in a new domain that I've never been associated with before. Last week I got an ipad as a gift, set it up with my personal account on my personal domain. Last few days, I start getting spam from apple on my work email about service offers for this new personal tablet!! Zero relationship between the accounts or domains! The only possible explanation is they're correlating the IP address and going by that. Very creepy.
vharuck 6y ago
I stopped using Facebook when I was looking around the HTML tags for an image (can't recall why) and noticed it listed keywords for the image. The keywords were lacking context and only mentioned objects and weather, so it was obvious the user didn't assign them. Facebook logging what's in photos is creepy enough, but the fact it was happening in the background was the worst.
- ganeshkrishnan 6y ago
  Those are alt tags and useful information for people with low vision who use screen readers