Facebook Facial Scanning A No For Europe

Facebook “Moments” service has not been approved by European regulators who want users to have an option to opt out of having their faces scanned.

17:12 23 June 2015

Facebook “Moments” service, an app that scans faces and identifies them, will not be coming to Europe after regulators said that they want users to have the option to not use the service. 

 

“Regulators have told us we have to offer an opt-in choice to people to do this,” Richard Allan told the WSJ. “We don’t have an opt-in mechanism so it is turned off until we develop one.”

 

European regulators have always been concerned with the facial recognition technology that was initially implemented in 2010. Without an “opt out” option, it received numerous complaints and was turned off after two years. 

 

Facebook is regulated in Ireland by the country’s Data Protection Commissioner, which ensures that it is conforming with European law.