Facebook expands its use of facial recognition technology

Facebook on Tuesday announced a new policy for gaining user consent to apply facial recognition to photos on the service, while also expanding its use of the technology.

The big picture: The feature was initially only used to help suggest possible friends to tag in a photo, but Facebook says that, with users' permission, it will now also use face recognition to help prevent people from using your photos fraudulently.

• Facebook said users will also be asked whether they want to turn on facial recognition or leave it turned off.

Our thought bubble: At first, Facebook used facial recognition to power a single feature — automatic photo tagging. By expanding its use beyond that single feature, Facebook could be greasing the wheels for even greater use down the road.

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