with transparency and control,” the company said in a statement. “We decided, in consultation with privacy advocates and people, that the best approach for this offering was to notify people on Facebook and provide a way to adjust it in their account settings at any time.”
The social network has been sued by people who claim that the face-scanning technology used by Facebook violates state laws that say companies may not keep biometric data — face scans, fingerprints, etc. — without first getting permission. A California judge last year allowed a case from three men in Illinois to move forward over Facebook's objections. And the newest features will not roll out in Canada and Europe, where regulators have raised concerns about the way Facebook collects face data.
The features, which began rolling out Tuesday in the United States, will apply only to new photos uploaded to the site and will not scan through existing photos. Facebook will let people know about the changes in their news feeds, the company said, and will encourage everyone to check their settings.