Facebook Rolling Out New Face Recognition Photo Tags

Get ready for another Facebook update: Next week, the site will start rolling out new face-recognition technology for photos, the Huffington Post reports. It’s “comforting” to know that the service won’t be automatic, writes Larry Magid. If the site thinks it recognizes someone, it will ask you for confirmation. Ignore it, and no tagging takes place. Privacy settings won’t change—you’ll still be alerted when you’re tagged and able to remove any unwanted tags.

You’ll also be able to opt out of the service, meaning the site won’t try to recognize you in your friends’ pictures. Face-recognition technologies are still fairly unreliable, says an expert; perhaps for that reason, Facebook will attempt to identify only those of your friends you contact the most. Meanwhile, the site is expected to generate $2 billion in revenue this year, insiders tell Bloomberg.
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