Privacy Groups File FTC Complaint About Face Recognition

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and other advocacy groups are asking the Federal Trade Commission to order Facebook to suspend a feature that automatically recognizes users' faces and suggests their names when they appear in photos uploaded by their friends.

"The secretive collection compilation and subsequent use of facial images for automated online identification adversely impacts consumers in the United States and around the world," the groups allege in a complaint filed Friday with the FTC. "Facebook's 'Tag Suggestions' techniques converts the photos uploaded by Facebook users into an image identification system under the sole control of Facebook. This has occurred without the knowledge or consent of Facebook users and without adequate consideration of the risks to Facebook users."

EPIC and the Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Watchdog, and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, argue that the new feature constitutes a deceptive trade practice. The groups also are asking the FTC to require that Facebook obtain users' opt-in consent before sharing information about users in new ways.

Facebook last week said it had rolled out automatic tagging to most countries. People can configure their privacy settings to opt out of the feature, in which case Facebook will not automatically offer to tag photos with their names when it recognizes their faces in shots uploaded by friends. Those friends can still manually tag the users, who can remove their names after the fact.

But EPIC alleges that system does not adequately protect users' privacy for several reasons. First, the privacy group argues, Facebook didn't give people notice that it was collecting information about people's appearance -- so-called "biometric identifiers." Even if users can stop Facebook from suggesting their names to friends, people can't "delete or prevent Facebook's biometric data collection," EPIC alleges in its FTC complaint.

In addition, EPIC argues, third parties like advertisers, app developers and the government might be able to access the information without users' permission.

In its complaint, EPIC also takes the unusual step of criticizing the FTC itself for failing to act on prior criticisms about Facebook. EPIC previously filed an FTC complaint arguing that the social networking service engaged in a deceptive business practice by loosening its privacy default settings in December of 2009. That matter is still pending.

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