Meta turns to facial recognition tech to combat scams

Facebook parent company Meta will utilize facial recognition technology (FRT) to counter scams. Amid an increase in celebrity-bait ads, the company is introducing this feature globally that will help users recover accounts more quickly. Meta is rolling out FRT to celebrities impacted by scams, with plans for a gradual rollout to others in the coming weeks.

Celebrity-bait scams have increasingly been used recently to lure people into engaging with ads that lead to scam websites, where they are asked to share personal information or send money.

“We are testing the use of FRT to help protect our users from scams and to enable faster account recovery, while also keeping bad actors out of people’s accounts. With privacy and transparency in place, FRT can be a powerful tool to help protect people online, including on our apps,” said David Agranovich, director of security policy at Meta.

Meta will send in-app notifications to public figures and celebrities, informing them that they have been enrolled in this experiment. However, the celebrities do have the option to opt-out.

Meta discontinued the use of FRT in 2021; the feature at that time allowed for image tagging, as the regulatory landscape around facial recognition was still evolving.

Meta is also now testing video selfies as a means for people to verify their identity and regain access to compromised accounts.

“The user uploads a video selfie, and we’ll use FRT to compare the selfie against the profile pictures on the account they’re trying to access. This is similar to the identity verification used to unlock a phone or access other apps,” David said.