Facebook Verified Launches: Meta Revives Facial Recognition It Once Deleted for Privacy
Meta is introducing facial recognition technology as part of its Facebook Verified subscription service, reviving a capability the company previously shut down in 2021 following significant privacy backlash. The feature appears tied to identity verification for paying subscribers.
Why this matters: Meta deleted this exact technology three years ago because of the privacy pressure it faced. Now it is back, this time attached to a paid tier. That framing matters. When a privacy-invasive feature is a subscription perk, the company gets to say users chose it. But consent bundled inside a product sign-up is not the same as a clear, standalone choice. Facial recognition is not a small thing to hand a company that has spent years mishandling personal data. The rollback happened for real reasons. Those reasons did not go away.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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