Opt Out of Facebook’s Facial Recognition

Last week Facebook announced that it is officially rolling out facial recognition technology which helps users by offering to auto-tag pictures that they have uploaded.

Last year Facebook said that they will offer this feature to make the process of tagging friends in photos easier. As helpful as they say it is, I think that it’s creepy.

(Sidenote – every time I hear about facial recognition I can’t help but think of the movie Minority Report.  We should all be cautious of anything that comes true from a Tom Cruise movie, except for the “love and feeling” scene from Top Gun, of course.)

By default, Facebook users are automatically opted-in to be auto-tagged, but those who are uploading the pictures are prompted to the option of auto-tagging or not, so you do have the choice.

Here is a snippet of what facial recognition looks like in action:

Maybe I’m paranoid, but I am choosing to opt-out of this feature and you can too in a few simple steps:

1) Log in to your Facebook account.

2) Go to the Account tab on the far right and select “Privacy Settings.”

3) Under the “Sharing on Facebook” settings, click “Customize settings.”

4) Scroll down to the “Things other share” settings area, then select “Edit Settings” next to “Suggest photos of me to friends.”

5) You will get a pop-up with pictures of your friends (don’t let their smiles fool you, they will auto-tag you!) and this is where you want to “Disable” the feature, then select “Okay.”

6) While you are in your settings, take a few minutes to review your current settings. I HIGHLY recommend not sharing your birthday (at least not the year of your birth) or your address. Facebook info is an easy way for mean people to take your info and use it for evil purposes.