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Social networking company Facebook has bought biometric identity firm Face.com. Though both the parties have declined to confirm specifics, the deal could be worth US$ 55–60 Million. Face.com is the company behind recognition app KliK which we reviewed sometime back.
How does Face.com work?
Whenever a user uploads a photo, the algorithms scan for distinct facial features & compare them to earlier tagged photos. If similarities are found, the user is prompted by intelligent guesses as to who the person in the image might be. Privacy advocates had long been voicing their concerns about Facebook’s features to identify people. This forced Facebook to offer a simpler ‘Opt-Out’ Feature to facial recognition.
On the contrary, we definitely see a very good potential for a recent request made by Indian Government (GoI). Privacy concerns had prompted our GoI to issue notices that asked social media companies to offer better ways to protect identities & verify credentials of its users. Such biometric verifications could be just the solution everyone is seeking.
But, privacy concerns do point out a more sinister angle to it. As Facebook thrives on paid advertisements, such enhanced technology could be misused to track patterns of users & serve advertisements that uncannily match their thoughts. Despite favorable news overall, Facebook is going through a rough patch. Its famous US$ 1 Billion acquisition of Instagram will not fructify for a long time. To make matters worse, its advertising is not getting adequate response, its shares have also plummeted.
So in these circumstances, do you think it is wise for Facebook to acquire a facial recognition company? Share your thoughts with us.
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