Facebook may be testing a facial recognition tool that could be used to verify your identity.
Jane Manchun Wong is a 23-year-old app researcher famous for uncovering new features before they launch. Wong announced on Twitter that she has discovered a reference to a facial recognition system in Facebook‘s mobile app.
According to Wong, the user would take a “video selfie” looking in different directions so Facebook can get a complete view of your face. Facebook says no one else would see the video and the clip would be deleted after 30-days.
Wong raised several questions.
“If you were Facebook, how else would you make sure the user is real? How else would you ensure integrity and prevent frauds which happens with e-commerce? What if FB just didn’t verify anyone’s identity and let fraud and misinformation campaigns happen? Would this be ideal?” – @wongmjane / Twitter.com
A face recognition feature could reduce the chances of having a user’s account compromised, but with the company’s history of data breaches and privacy issues, would the public actually be comfortable with this potential feature?
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
