Facebook launches ‘Photo Review’ facial recognition tool

Facebook is on a launching spree. The social media company has been making a lot of changes to its platform in the recent weeks. In a similar effort, the firm has added a new feature that allows users greater control over the pictures that they upload and are tagged in. The new facial recognition feature is called Photo Review, reported Tech Crunch.

The latest Photo Review is designed to notify the users when their face shows up pictures that they are not necessarily tagged in. This way, if the user’s friends forget to label them, they can tag themselves in the photo. For those who don’t want the picture online, they can just ask the uploader or even Facebook, to take the picture down.

Facebook launched the Photo Review feature with the intention of allowing users to have greater control over their information being floated online. Experts feel that Facebook could potentially make use of the facial recognition software to enhance or even target their content relevancy section. The company, however, has said that they don’t plan on doing this.

Machine learning product manager at Facebook, Nipun Mather told Tech Crunch that the Photo Review feature had been introduced with the sole purpose of giving users greater control over the different functions and make them feel safe and secure. The latest feature is scheduled to roll-out globally in the next couple of weeks. “Over time our goal is to make these features available everywhere . . . but right now we’re focusing on markets where tag suggestions are available” says Facebook’s Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Rob Sherman.

Let’s hope Photo Review enhances the privacy of Facebook users. By gaining increased visibility into the content showcased on Facebook, users can use it to their benefit in many different ways.