The last several months have proven rather unpredictable for Facebook. First, they bought photo-sharing powerhouse Instagram for the astronomical sum of $1 billion, even though it was rumored that they had been working on their own mobile photo-sharing app for several months prior to the purchase. They then announced that Instagram would remain independent, shortly followed by the announcement of Facebook Photo, a branded app strikingly similar to Instagram (are they trying to compete with themselves?). Then, of course, there was the ill-fated IPO heard round the world, complete with stock prices plummeting practically moments after they hit the market. While the company has long been suspected of making money hand-over-fist, it seems as though they’re blowing through it nearly as quickly. And the latest proof of this trend came in their recent acquisition of facial recognition company Face.com.
Okay, so the reasons that they might want this company are fairly self-explanatory. For one thing, facial recognition software provides another way to track what their customers are up to. Face.com has an app called KLIK that recognizes faces in photos and instantly tags them for you. This will no doubt contribute to the massive data stream that flows into Facebook HQ to be used for analyzing trends amongst users (for the purpose of selling, no doubt, although it is often referred to as “tailoring” the customer experience). Of course, it could just be that Facebook has listened to user complaints about their less-than-perfect tagging software, which apparently doesn’t work all that great with mobile devices, and decided to deliver the goods by purchasing a company whose programming is superior to their own. And it will certainly compliment Facebook’s latest photo app, called Camera, which aims to make it easier for users to snap and upload pics to their profiles.
Of course, facial recognition software can be used for a lot more than simply identifying people. For years casinos have been using it (along with other software) to analyze the emotional states of players, always on the lookout for anyone who might be cheating. Although this may not factor into Facebook’s plan, it’s sort of frightening to think about what they could be doing with the data they collect. It would be truly surprising if they don’t have some kind of money-making scheme attached to the move, especially considering that the FTC recently went after them concerning their lax standards on privacy settings and the fact that they were selling user information (that was formerly private) to advertisers.
Of course, part of the FTC agreement was that Facebook now has to obtain consent from users before their information can be made public in any way. But that doesn’t stop them from encouraging users to publicly share posts, comments, and of course, photos. And if you’re using their software (rather than using an open-source Gimp download, for example, to edit and post pics to an alternate photo-sharing site) they have more opportunity to glean information about you, your friends, and all manner of user habits that they can analyze in order to “personalize” your experience (i.e. keep you coming back). Most people are probably more than happy to have access to software that will tag their photos for them on Facebook. But before you agree to use it, take a moment to think about just exactly what you’re agreeing to share.
