The social networking giant, Facebook, has been highlighted in the news recently for its lack of concern over privacy in regards to some of its latest improvements. One feature causing some discomfort is the enhancement of the photo tagging process.
Acquisition of a Facial Detection Software company and the introduction of a Facial Recognition Application give Facebook users the ability to identify individuals’ faces in user-uploaded images and, given certain permissions, automatically tag them as well.
Facebook acquired Divvyshot back in April in hopes of improving on its photo album features. In the past week, some users have begun to see software designed to automatically detect faces in images. Once granted permission, the program will tag all appearances of an individual’s face to their respective profile. The prompt is quite simple:
“Whose face is this?”
Face.com, a software firm, has released some interesting programs that add additional photo tagging features through applications on Facebook and APIs available for use on personal and business websites.
Improvements to photo tagging on Facebook and innovative 3rd party developers will further increase the need for individuals to be aware of possibly tarnishing their personal brands. It will become more difficult to disconnect offline behavior with a masked online presence.
One must always be aware that they are representing themselves. You never know when your photo is being taken. It may be in a situation that you may not want to be associated with.
A great example took place at the Glastonbury Music Fesival last month. A panoramic image captured over 70,000 attendees in an attempt to create the “most-tagged” photo in existence. Visit the site to tag yourself and others with Facebook Connect, here.
Links
– Facebook – Link
– Facial Detection Software – Article
– Facial Recognition Application – Article
– Divvyshot – Link
– Face.com – Link
– Glastonbury Tagged Image – Link