In late 2010, Facebook in the U.S. deployed a feature that, although a priori might seem comfortable, something that became quite annoyed users: facial recognition . This functionality allowed recognize the faces in the photos and tag our friends automatically, something that could save time but quite worried because besides amassing a wealth of information about users, Facebook could recognize them and point them in a photo . The situation was further complicated when in the summer of last year, Facebook deployed massively activating this functionality by default, a fact for which the European Union questioned the social network .
In Ireland, the body responsible for the protection of personal data of citizens initiated an investigation to determine if this feature violates European norms and following pressure (or recommendations) of the European Union has decided to disable Facebook facial recognition in Europe .
Ireland has played a key role in this case because, thanks to the research conducted by its data protection agency, Facebook has had to take a step back and nip functionality not liked to much of the users through the European operations of the social network Mark Zuckerberg are based this country (therefore subject to its laws).
Irish research ended with a series of recommendations to Facebook that, fearing a tightening of European legal framework on privacy and personal data, has agreed to abide without exhausting the 4-week period that has been given as margin (which carried a fine of 100,000 euros if not satisfied). In addition to disabling the service (which had been activated by default to all users without asking or even if you wanted to use), Facebook has agreed to remove, by 15 October, any pattern or data model is used as basis for recognize the faces of users and will have to pass a new audit to verify that, indeed, they are meeting the commitments.
That Facebook will disable this feature in Europe is a major victory in protecting the privacy of users and a guarantee that such abuses will not allow (even if Facebook is parapete legal under U.S. or alleged that is a feature designed to improve the user experience).
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