Facebook changes privacy settings with facial recognition, Sophos reports

Issued by Me Talk Pretty for Sophos South Africa

Johannesburg, 09 Jun 2011

Sophos is encouraging Facebook users to review their privacy settings, after reports that the site has enabled facial recognition for photo tags for many users.

Facebook revealed last year it was introducing facial recognition technology to encourage users to tag each other in photographs, but the functionality was initially only available in North America and was disabled elsewhere.

In the last few days, Facebook users around the world have reported that the option has been enabled without any notice by the Web site.

To the annoyance of many Facebook users, the site provides no way for users to pre-approve photos they are tagged in. Instead, users must untag themselves manually after they have been tagged.

"Many people feel distinctly uncomfortable about a site like Facebook learning what they look like, and using that information without their permission," says Brett Myroff, CEO of regional Sophos distributor, Sophos South Africa.

"Most Facebook users still don't know how to set their privacy options safely, finding the whole system confusing. It's even harder though to keep control when Facebook changes the settings without your knowledge. Facebook users should have to 'opt-in' to the facial recognition feature, rather than the onus being on them to 'opt-out'."

Facebook users can control the new feature by disabling "Suggest photos of me to friends" in their privacy settings.

Sophos South Africa

NetXactics, trading as Sophos South Africa, is a South African-based company focused on the provision of security solutions. It is the master distributor for UK-based Sophos Plc, one of the leaders in the provision of network access control and endpoint, e-mail and Web security and control solutions for the corporate environment. For more information, visit Sophos South Africa at http://www.sophos.co.za.

Sophos

Sophos enables enterprises worldwide to secure and control their IT infrastructure. Our network access control, endpoint, Web and e-mail solutions simplify security to provide integrated defenses against malware, spyware, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam, policy abuse, data leakage and compliance drift. With over 20 years of experience, we protect over 100 million users in nearly 150 countries with our reliably engineered security solutions and services. Recognised for our high level of customer satisfaction, we have an enviable history of industry awards, reviews and certifications. Sophos is headquartered in Boston, MA and Oxford, UK.

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