Meta uses facial recognition technology to eliminate fraudulent ads for celebrities.

Meta said it will use facial recognition technology in an attempt to eliminate fraudulent celebrity ads that plague Facebook and Instagram platforms.

This move comes after three years of Meta removing facial recognition technology from Facebook following a backlash against the technology. Meta hopes that the implementation of the system will be better received by its online communities this time.

Meta explained in a post announcing: “Scammers often try to use public figures’ photos, such as content creators or celebrities, to entice people to interact with ads that lead to fraudulent websites, where they are asked to share personal information or send money.” The move to reintroduce facial recognition technology.

Meta already has a system in place to detect fraudulent ads involving celebrities, but it now aims to make it stronger. From now on, if an ad is suspected of being a potential scam and contains a public figure’s photo exposed to the lure of celebrity, facial recognition technology will be deployed to compare the faces in the ad with the profile photos of the public figure on Facebook and Instagram. If a match is confirmed and it is concluded that the ad is a scam, Meta will ban it.

In an attempt to avoid the same kind of criticism that led Meta to abandon facial recognition technology three years ago, which included automatically tagging photos for Facebook users, the company said it will delete any facial data created from ads for Facebook. once, regardless of whether its system found a match or not, adding that the data will not be used for any other purpose.

The company said early tests with a small group of celebrities and public figures show promising results. After that, a larger group of celebrities who have been used in celebrity scam operations will be enrolled. Those selected will be notified and they can opt out of the system at any time.

Account Recovery

Meta also said it is testing facial recognition technology as a way for people to verify their identity and regain access to their Facebook and Instagram accounts if they forget their password, lose their devices, or are tricked into giving their passwords to scammers.

Currently, hacked account owners need to verify their identity to regain access by uploading an official ID or official certificate that verifies their names.

But Meta said it is now testing “video selfies” as a way for people to verify their identity and regain access to their accounts.

The company explained: “The user will upload a video selfie, and we will use facial recognition technology to compare the selfie with profile photos on the account they are trying to access,” adding that the system is “similar to identity verification tools.” Maybe you already use it to unlock your phone or access other applications.”

The video selfies uploaded will be encrypted and securely stored and will never appear on any Meta platform. The video will also be immediately deleted by Meta once it is used to verify the user’s identity.

Meta said: “Video selfies expand the options available for people to regain access to their accounts, taking only one minute to complete, and it is the easiest way for people to verify their identity.” “Although we know that hackers will continue to try to exploit account recovery tools, this verification method will ultimately be more difficult for hackers to misuse compared to traditional document-based identity verification.”