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Facebook will now notify you if someone uploads your photo: How it works

Facebook users will now get a notification if their photo has been uploaded by anyone else on Facebook even if they’re not tagged in it. The new feature dubbed as ‘Photo Review’ uses facial recognition technology to identify photos of users. Additionally, Facebook has also launched a new feature for visually impaired people.

The latest feature from Facebook gives users options to tag themselves, remain untagged, or report the photo to Facebook. It will also notify even when users appear in someone else’s profile picture. Facebook Photo Review gives users more control over their photos and prevents people’s pictures from misuse on Facebook.

How does it work?

According to Facebook, the facial recognition technology will work by analyzing the pixels in photos the user is already tagged in. After that, it will generate a string of numbers or templates to compare with other photos or videos that are uploaded to Facebook’s systems by someone else.

Additionally, users can control whether Facebook can recognize them in photos and videos using facial recognition with an on/off switch.


How to use facial recognition feature on Facebook

First of all, you need to change the ‘Tag suggestions’ which is by default to no one. Users will need to change it to ‘Friends’, and the Photo Review will be turned on. The feature appears in Account settings, Timeline and tagging.

Soon, Facebook will release the on/off switch for individual features that use facial recognition technology, which by default will be set to “off” and will remain that way until users decide to change it. After switching it on, it will recognize your photos on Facebook and will notify you.

Now, if you’re in a photo and are part of the audience, Facebook will notify you, even if you aren’t tagged. You can also make choices such as whether to tag yourself, leave yourself untagged, or reach out to the person who has posted the photo or report it to Facebook.

New Tools for Visually Impaired people

Facebook had launched an automatic alt-text tool two years ago, which describes photos to people with vision loss. Now, with facial recognition technology, it will tell visually impaired people who appear in the photos in their News Feed even if they aren’t tagged.

Facebook will soon roll out these new features in all the countries where Facebook is used except in Canada and the EU where the social networking giant currently doesn’t offer facial recognition technology.

We want people to feel confident when they post pictures of themselves on Facebook so we’ll soon begin using face recognition technology to let people know when someone else uploads a photo of them as their profile picture. We’re doing this to prevent people from impersonating others on Facebook.,” writes Facebook Applied Machine Learning Director Joaquin.

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Satyendra Pal Singh

Satyendra explores the latest happenings in the tech world and writes stories about those. He likes to play around with the latest gadgets and shares his views through articles. In his free time, you can find him watching movies/TV shows and/or reading books.

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