Facebook has risked re-opening the facial recognition debate, by allowing users in Europe to use its ‘tag suggest’ technology to identify their friends in the United States.
The social network scratched its controversial photo tagging technology in the EU in 2012 after an outcry from governments and privacy campaigners in the region.
However, the tag suggest tech is still enabled in the US, despite similar campaigns, and Facebook appears to have taken advantage of a loophole in order to partially reinstate the feature in Europe.
When uploading a picture Facebook users are given the option to use tag suggest if the person recognised has their account based in the United States and only if tag suggest is enabled on that person’s account.
Facebook is still unable to use its knowledge of its users facial make-up in order to suggest tags for anyone based in Europe, but today’s update appears to narrow the gap between the company’s policies in the US and the UK.
The change, first spotted by TechCrunch in Germany and the UK, was confirmed by Facebook to a reporter from The Next Web blog.
Are you concerned Facebook may be attempting to reintroduce the feature, to its fullest extent? Do you believe the outcry in Europe was way over the top?
Let us know your thoughts on the facial recognition debate in the comments below.
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