Facebook considers adding profile photos to facial recognition

Facebook Inc (FB.O) is considering incorporating most of its 1 billion-plus members' profile photos into its growing facial recognition database, expanding the scope of the social network's controversial technology.

The possible move, which Facebook revealed in an update to its data use policy on Thursday, is intended to improve the performance of its "Tag Suggest" feature. The feature uses facial recognition technology to speed up the process of labeling or "tagging" friends and acquaintances who appear in photos posted on the network.

The technology currently automatically identifies faces in newly uploaded photos by comparing them only to previous snapshots in which users were tagged. Facebook users can choose to remove tags identifying them in photos posted by others on the site.

The changes would come at a time when Facebook and other Internet companies' privacy practices are under scrutiny, following the revelations of a U.S. government electronic surveillance program.

Facebook, Google Inc (GOOG.O) and other companies have insisted that they have never participated in any program giving the government direct access to their computer servers and that they only provide information in response to specific requests, after careful review and as required by law.

Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan said that adding members' public profile photos would give users better control over their personal information, by making it easier to identify posted photos in which they appear.

"Our goal is to facilitate tagging so that people know when there are photos of them on our service," Egan said.

She stressed that Facebook users uncomfortable with facial recognition technology will still be able to "opt out" of the Tag Suggest feature altogether, in which case the person's public profile photo would not be included in the facial recognition database.

Facial recognition technology has been a sensitive issue for technology companies, raising concerns among some privacy advocates and government officials. Tag Suggest, which the company introduced in 2011, is not available in Europe due to concerns raised by regulators there.

Google's social network, Google+, also employs similar technology, but requires user consent. And it has banned third-party software makers from using facial recognition technology in apps designed for its Glass wearable computer.

Egan said Facebook was not currently using facial recognition technology for any other features, but that could change.

"Can I say that we will never use facial recognition technology for any other purposes? Absolutely not," Egan said. But, she noted, "if we decided to use it in different ways we will continue to provide people transparency about that and we will continue to provide control."

Facebook also amended its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities on Thursday, adding and tweaking the language so that members under 18 years of age are deemed to have affirmed that a parent or legal guardian has agreed to allow marketers to use some of their personal information in ads.

The language was the result of a recent court-approved legal settlement regarding its "sponsored stories" ads

Zurker Review- Bigger and Better than Facebook?

Why I Love Zurker

I'm naturally skeptical but after a few days of using Zurker, I am totally hooked and convinced. Here's why:
1. Open and Responsive
I posed lots of questions to the co-founders and I was amazed by how quickly and openly they responded. They treated me as a friend and colleague and welcomed searching questions. This was a clincher for me. Imagine trying to ask Mark Z difficult questions about Facebook! By the way, the User ID's of the co-founders are Cineman and Berzurker and once you have joined Zurker you can just post questions on their walls. I found that I got full answers within a few hours2. Owned By Its Members
I like the idea of social media owned by its members. It certainly beats the Facebook model.
3. Members Share In The Growth And Profits
The only investment needed is a little time. Time you might otherwise have wasted making the owners of Facebook or Twitter a little richer.

4. You Have Total Control Of Your Own Privacy
You control your privacy (for every update and photo you post) through the use of zurks, tags, street & home concepts. I guess I ought to explain a bit more. A "zurk" is a bit like a Facebook "like" but it's better because it's a more neutral word. For example it somehow seems inappropriate to "like" a post about someone dying but in Zurker you would "zurk" it to highlight it was a post worth sharing.
You can associate tags with your connections on Zurker. Tags could be "Friends", "Family" or "Hubbers" or any tag you make up. Only you can see your tags, so you could tag someone as "time-waster" and they would never know (I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to use derogatory tags just yet).
Your "Street" page is where you can see all the updates posted by all you connections, but you can filter these by tag (see above). Your home page only shows updates that directly involve you and again you can filter by tag.
5. Open Books, Open Statistics, Open Bug-Reporting, Open Everything!
Zurker publishes online (via links at the bottom of every Zurker page) every cent that comes in and every cent that goes out. Membership figures and graphs are updated and displayed every hour. There is a link to report bugs and you can read any bug that has been reported and the developers' responses.
6. Unique Features
Such as Zurks, Tags, Street/Home etc. see 3, above, for more details.
7. Democratic
Members will be able to control everything by voting.
8. Development Driven By Members' Ideas
There will be an "Ideas" link where members will be able to suggest ideas and vote to select the best ideas.
9. Personal Identity and Business Identities Separate
Zurker will have a separate type of membership businesses known as "Entities". You will know whether you are connecting with a real person or a business.
10. No Advertising And (Almost) No Spam
Zurker is advert free and has a very strict anti-spam policy.
11. Responsible, Bright, Creative and Positive Members
Because all of all that Zurker has to offer it is attractive to people that think for themselves.
12. Zurker Is Fun!
Zurker is a cool name to play with and we already have Zurker slang and culture.
Summary
For all of these reasons I believe that Zurker has real potential to become the most popular social network on the Planet. I aloso reviewed Zurker on my blog and included some testimonials from other Zurker members.
Zurker- A Chance In A Lifetime!

I would never have guessed that I would have the chance to own part of a social network that will overtake Facebook. Imagine if you had been offered the opportunity to own part of Facebook for zero cost, would you have seized the moment? You have a similar chance with Zurker right now. At the moment it's in beta and membership is by invitation only, so here's your invite:-
Click Here to Join Zurker! Don't Miss Out!
Even though Zurker is in beta, membership is steadily climbing and today hit 10,000 members. In fact as I am writing this membership is 10,940 so over the last 24 hours over 1,000 new members have signed up. So don't delay, please use my invite (see above) now!

Zurker Official Video

The Future of Social Media

In my view member owned social media platforms, like Zurker, have significant implications for less democratic platforms like Facebook. The whole future of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook will be in dobut when they're faced with the full, irresistible force of democracy. In the world as a whole democracy is proving to be the dominant force and in the end all dicatators are overthrown. I see no reason why this should not apply to the world of social media.

Zurker- How You Can Be An Owner

Zurker is a new and unique type of social media. It seems to be a mixture between Facebook and Google + but with a unique selling point: it's owned by its members! You earn shares in Zurker by referring members. You get 2 shares for each referral in the first 24 hours of your membership and one share per referral thereafter. There are separate Zurkers for each major country- so I'm a member of Zurker UK. You can also buy shares (in the UK they currently sell for £1 each). Each country has a limit of one million shares.

Please click below to sign-up with Zurker

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