Earlier this week, Facebook announced that it will no longer use facial recognition technology on its social platform. However, the social network’s parent company, Meta, says it will continue to use it in its other “metaverse” products.
Facebook on Monday said it will shut down its Face Recognition tool and delete the collected facial templates of more than a billion people. The technology was used to identify people for tagging purposes in uploaded photos.
While privacy advocates and anti-facial recognition critics were delighted with Monday’s news, the technology will still be used in other metaverse products.
“We believe this technology has the potential to enable positive use cases in the future that maintain privacy, control, and transparency, and it’s an approach we’ll continue to explore as we consider how our future computing platforms and devices can best serve people’s needs,” Jason Grosse, spokesperson for Meta, told the publication.
Meta will continue to use a variety of biometric tools. That includes DeepFace, an artificial intelligence technology that matches facial templates generated by Facebook’s facial recognition system with user photos.
Meta has not revealed what it plans to do with DeepFace but it promises to keep users informed of upcoming changes.
“For any potential future applications of technologies like this, we’ll continue to be public about intended use, how people can have control over these systems and their personal data, and how we’re living up to our responsible innovation framework,” Grosse said.