How to Turn Off the Automatic Face Recognition Setting on Facebook (If Possible)
Despite all of its claims that privacy is a serious issue , Facebook certainly continues to undermine itself . Last mistake: Some users have reported that the automatic face recognition setting is clearly missing from their Facebook settings. This feature, which launched in late 2017, uses machine learning to automatically tag you in photos. Facebook has touted the capabilities of the recognition technology, which include the ability to identify a person’s gender, age, and race, and remember faces. Impressive, of course, but also intrusive. Not everyone wants to be tagged in all photos, and users should be able to opt-out.
Be that as it may, this option was clearly present when we checked the settings on the Facebook website, but according to a small audit by Consumer Reports , the facial recognition section was missing in about 25% of the accounts surveyed. It’s unclear if this is a bug or if Facebook hasn’t rolled out this feature to all accounts yet. Either way, this is a bad look for a company that has been grappling with alarming privacy messages lately.
So we’re curious: is this option available to you? Let us know in the comments. If you don’t know where to find it, it should be in your Facebook account settings. Log in or open the Facebook app and go to Settings. The face recognition section is usually located under the “Languages” tab in the left menu.
How to turn off automatic face recognition on Facebook
While this option is present, you can turn it off by clicking / tapping Edit next to “Do you want Facebook to recognize you in your photos and videos?” Select “No” from the drop-down list, then tap / click “Close”. Hopefully soon everyone will have the opportunity to opt out. However, due to a host of other privacy bugs lately, we wouldn’t be surprised if this is another reason people choose to close their Facebook accounts .