Meta Reintroduces Facial Recognition to Combat 'Celeb-Bait' Scams

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is bringing back facial recognition technology, three years after initially shutting it down due to privacy concerns. The social media giant announced it is testing the feature as part of a new effort to tackle fraudulent "celeb-bait" scams.

In the trial, Meta will enroll around 50,000 public figures, automatically comparing their Facebook profile pictures with images used in suspicious scam advertisements. If a match is found and the ad is deemed a scam, Meta will block the ad. Celebrities involved in the trial will be notified and can opt out if they prefer not to participate.

The global rollout of this trial is expected in December, although it will exclude regions like Britain, the European Union, South Korea, and U.S. states such as Texas and Illinois due to regulatory restrictions.

Monika Bickert, Meta’s vice president of content policy, said the initiative is aimed at offering increased protection to public figures whose images are commonly exploited in scam ads. "We want to make this protection available and easy for them to opt into, but they can choose to opt out if they wish," Bickert said.

This move by Meta comes at a time when the company is attempting to balance the use of potentially invasive technology with privacy concerns. The company has faced ongoing criticism over how it handles user data. In 2021, Meta shut down its previous facial recognition system and deleted the face scan data of one billion users, citing societal concerns. Recently, Meta was ordered to pay $1.4 billion in a Texas lawsuit for collecting biometric data illegally.

At the same time, Meta has been dealing with lawsuits over its failure to stop "celeb-bait" scams, where scammers use images of well-known individuals to lure users into fraudulent schemes.

In this trial, Meta said it will immediately delete any face data generated from its ad comparisons, regardless of whether a scam is detected. The technology has undergone internal privacy reviews and has been discussed with regulators and privacy experts before the trial was launched.

Meta also announced plans to test the use of facial recognition data to help everyday users regain access to hacked or locked Facebook and Instagram accounts.

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