Would You Let Facebook Scan Your Face To Secure Your Account?
Facial recognition is becoming an increasingly popular option for authentication, and it may not be long before we see Facebook hop aboard that particular train. It appears that the company is gearing up to test a new facial recognition feature for identity verification. While the move does make some degree of sense, Facebook definitely needs to tread carefully here, because it's been at the center of a lot of privacy debates lately.
This work-in-progress facial recognition tool was found by Jane Manchun Wong, who regularly reverse engineers apps to discover unreleased features lurking within their code. She published her findings to Twitter today, sharing a gif that shows the process of scanning one's face – the app will have users look side to side to perform a scan from multiple angles, as most facial recognition tools do.
This is how Facebook's Facial Recognition-based Identity Verification looks like
It asks me to look at several directions within the circle
It explicitly states no one else will see the video selfie and will be deleted 30 days after the confirmation pic.twitter.com/296bGRDyYZ
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 5, 2019
In another tweet, Wong shared images of the alerts users see when setting up facial verification. In addition to on-screen instructions, Facebook also promises that no one else will see the video that's recorded and that it will be deleted 30 days after the user's identity has been confirmed.
Going hand-in-hand with this, Wong also discovered that Facebook has been improving the process of scanning and submitting photo IDs for verification. The images she shared there show simple instructions for scanning an ID that tell users to place it on a flat surface and make sure there's enough light before snapping a photo. As with the facial recognition video Facebook records, the company says that ID photos will only be used to confirm a user's identity, and that they'll be deleted within 30 days.
Facebook continues improving the experience of user ID photo submission pic.twitter.com/O2VNhPg4EK
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 5, 2019
The discovery of facial recognition tools doesn't necessarily mean that we'll see this added to the Facebook app, but it's always possible that Facebook will make the push. If it does, it might be met with resistance from users, as Facebook's various privacy scandals have probably left a number of users unwilling to trust it when it comes to facial recognition. We'll see what happens from here, so stay tuned for more.