Facing facts: Facebook's facial recognition

There are two real problems here, and neither one of them is the facial recognition bit that’s made everyone go all Minority Report over this.

The first problem is Facebook: Once again the default is always to share. A simpler, better solution would have been to present users with a quick splash screen at log on asking if they want this feature turned on or off. Facebook is constantly mucking about with how it handles news feeds and photos and whatnot; this would be small potatoes compared to that, and it would earn them a bunch of goodwill.

(On the positive side, Facebook did immediately apologize instead of trying to ignore the problem or act like we’re all simpletons who must be schooled in the ways of the “new social norms.” So that’s a plus.)

The bigger problem is tagging itself. Letting other people tag photos can have unforeseen consequences. Say you’re a Congressman who likes to post close-ups of himself in his underwear (I’m just picking this example at random). Exactly whose manhood is filling out those BVDs is still a matter of debate at this point. Once somebody tags it with a name, though, we all know whose Weiner it is.

If that’s too silly, consider this real-world example. Until recently, I had a photo of a woman’s undergarment (not mine) posted to my Facebook page. Without going into too many details, let me assure you it was all pretty innocent. Last week somebody tagged that photo with the name of the person who owned that particular undergarment. Suddenly it’s not so innocent. The owner of said brassiere – now mortified that her name was associated with this image -- begged me to remove the photo, which I did.

Allowing other people to tag you at will can be problematic in all kinds of ways. Want to opt out of allowing friends to tag you? Tough. Facebook doesn’t give you that option. All you can do is control who sees the things you’re tagged in (friends, friends of friends, etc) or remove the tags one by one. By default, Facebook notifies you when you’re tagged – but who has time to keep up with all their Facebook emails? I certainly don’t.

That’s the real problem, not facial recognition. It’s just not sci-fi enough to scare people.

* I’m exaggerating, slightly.