Opt out of Facebook’s new facial recognition for photo tagging?

09 Jun 2011 UK SIC

On Tuesday Facebook introduced a facial recognition photo-tagging feature as a default setting.

Now, if one of your Facebook friends uploads a new photo of you, Facebook will “recognise” your face from photos you are already tagged in and suggest your name to your friend, who can then reject or accept this tag. Similarly, if your friend has this feature ‘Enabled’, their name will be suggested to you in any photos you upload of them.

How can I opt out?

Facebook had opted users into its facial recognition system by default. You can turn off this feature in your Privacy Settings if you don’t want Facebook to suggest your name in photo tags.

  • Click on ‘Account’ in the top right corner
  • Go to ‘Privacy Settings’
  • Find ‘Customize settings’
  • Scroll down to ‘Things others share’
  • Click on ‘Suggest photos of me to friends’
  • This will be set to ‘Enabled’ as default:

With the Enabled setting on: Facebook uses facial recognition software to match new photos of you with photos you are tagged in, so that when you or your friends upload photos with you in, Facebook will suggest your name as a tag.

With the Disabled setting on: your name will no longer be suggested in photo tags, though friends can still tag you manually.

(and while you’re there – a great opportunity for you to review your other privacy settings too!)

For more information about this function see ‘Photo tagging’ in the Facebook Help Centre