Facebook Can Respond to Feedback on Privacy
Facebook is shutting down its facial recognition program and deleting face scans of more than 1 billion users. The company said it was responding to the “many concerns about the place of facial recognition technology in society.”
The move shows Facebook, often the most brazen tech giant in its rejection of public criticism, can listen to feedback and be moved by public opinion. The change is a testament to the power of people-first data privacy movements like this one.
Facebook’s plans also underscore that facial recognition will be one of the major battlefields on which data privacy is contested in the years to come. Face scans can be taken in public and used by police or authoritarian governments. This is yet another matter where national privacy laws offering codified protections are sorely needed.