Meta resumes facial recognition tech, this time to prevent ‘celeb-bait’ ads

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) said it is using facial recognition technology to detect and prevent celeb-bait ads on its platforms.

The Facebook-owner noted that it is also testing the technology for people to verify their identity and regain access to compromised accounts.

The move comes about three after the company said it was shutting down the Face Recognition system on Facebook. Meta had said that there were many concerns about the place of facial recognition technology in society, and regulators were still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use. It planned to delete over a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates.

The company said on Monday that if its systems suspect that an ad may be a scam that contains the image of a public figure at risk for celeb-bait, the company will try to use facial recognition technology to compare faces in the ad to the public figure’s Facebook and Instagram profile pictures.

If the social media giant confirms a match and determines that the ad is a scam, it will block it.

Meta said it immediately deletes any facial data generated from ads for this one-time comparison, regardless if the system finds a match, and it does not use it for any other purpose.

The company added that early testing with a small group of celebrities and public figures has shows promising results in increasing the speed and efficacy with which it can detect and enforce against the scam.

In the coming weeks, Meta will start showing in-app notifications to a larger group of public figures who have been impacted by celeb-bait and let them know that they are being enrolled for this protection.

People enrolled in this activity can opt-out in their Accounts Center anytime, according to the company.

In addition, Meta said it is testing video selfies as a means for people to verify their identity and regain access to compromised accounts. The user will upload a video selfie and the company will use facial recognition technology to compare the selfie to the profile pictures on the account the user is trying to access.

The video selfie will be encrypted and stored securely and will never be visible on the profile, to friends or to other people on Facebook or Instagram. The company noted that it will immediately delete any facial data generated after this comparison, regardless if there is a match or not.

Meta will enroll about 50,000 public figures in the trial. The company intends to roll out the study globally from December, excluding some regions where it does not have regulatory approval, such as the U.K., EU, South Korea and the U.S. states of Texas and Illinois, Reuters reported citing the company.

Separately, Meta has been facing lawsuits alleging that the company has not done enough to stop celeb bait scams, as per the report.