Facebook and Instagram owner Meta has decided to bring facial recognition technology back to its user base. The Palo Alto-based tech giant plans to begin deploying a revamped face recognition system again after a nearly three-year pause caused by privacy concerns.

Meta believes the updated feature will successfully assist users in regaining access to compromised accounts and decrease the scam attempts flooding its ads platform. The company plans to use it cautiously and not broadly integrate it as it did in 2021 but make it specific towards improving the safety and security of the users. 

Facial recognition technology will be used to spot scam ads that use images of celebrities and public figures. Fake celebrity endorsements have been a problem for Meta’s users over the last couple of years, and Meta hopes that the return of the new tech will help them spot the bad actors. Apart from protecting its user base and advertising partners, the Northern California-based technology company’s latest move also aims to provide an alternative for people locked out of their social media accounts. 

Recovering a compromised account can be tedious, but instead of waiting for a manual review, users with hacked accounts will have the option to upload a short video selfie to Facebook. The new technology will then compare the selfie to images previously posted by the user and decide whether to grant or deny profile access.

Facebook and Instagram’s new approach to facial recognition

A few years ago, Facebook’s use of facial recognition brought controversy and a lengthy court battle, and this time, the company promised to “delete people’s facial data as soon as it’s no longer needed.” During the recovery process, Meta committed to encrypting and securely storing the short selfie videos and never making them visible on profiles or to other people on social media. The company claims that it will immediately delete the facial data after it is used to recover an account. 

In addition to getting rid of corrupt advertisers, the utilization of facial recognition tech will also have a positive impact on the company, as the move will likely help Meta decrease the overall costs for manual review labor. However, the move may also have a negative impact on the company, as it could trigger a reaction from privacy advocates, government regulators, and policymakers.

The new feature relieves some and causes anxiety to others. People who have had to recover a hacked account know that dealing with customer service can be a pain, and other privacy-oriented users remember that Facebook has not always been fully transparent about how it handles sensitive data. The new feature will only be deployed in North America but will likely reach the EU and UK after Meta agrees with regulators there. Â