Face Recognition Is Facebook's Latest Privacy Battleground

Facebook just can't seem to strike the right balance between useful features and privacy protection. It recently inaugurated a new feature that has privacy advocates seeking regulatory response in the US and in Europe.

The feature is auto photo face recognition. It works like this: When a Facebook user uploads a photo, the system "recognizes" the face(s) and suggests which name(s) to tag in the photo. Facebook will allow mass tagging, as well. In fact, Information Week says that Facebook is creating a database of user images linked to names.

Face recognition can be a very valuable feature in photo management software such as Google's Picasa, for example. Incorporating it into social networking via Facebook is another thing entirely.

Facebook allows users to turn off the setting allowing photo tagging, and it offers a "new suite of safety tools." But when it comes to privacy, FB moves to the beat of a different drummer.

By this time, FB may have disabled the feature because of the firestorm of protest. If not, you can turn off the face recognition tagging feature by logging into FB and clicking as follows:

Account > 

Account Settings > 

Privacy > 

Customize Settings > 

Things Others Share 

Click to disable "Suggest photos of me to friends."