Facebook Facial Recognition Apparently Violates Users’ Privacy

A consumer group is claiming Facebook’s facial recognition software violates its user’s privacy and is filing a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US.

The complaint was filed by a number of consumer organisations guided by the Electronic Privacy Information Centre, the Wall Street Journal reports.

They say the tag feature Facebook which helps user tag their friends constantly scans photos for bio metric matches without the image subjects authorisation.

The complaint says the social media giant uses Facebook users’ confirmations helping advance its facial recognition techniques. It also points out that these practices are deceptive and illegal in several states in the US plus many countries around the world.

The tagging feature uses intricate facial recognition software which compares faces to its huge database of face templates.

Facebook is already being investigated by the FTC after it was found the controversial political research company Cambridge Analytica had breached the data of 87 million users. Cambridge Analytica also had ties to the 2016 US election.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg is taking full responsibility for this data scandal and is issuing nine amendments to his social media site to prevent issues like this to happen in the future.

Facebook could be facing multi-million dollar fines in Australia if the Privacy Commissioner finds the social media behemoth guilty of breaching the privacy act. This comes after Facebook breached the data of more than 300,000 Australian users.