Is Facebook's Use of Facial Recognition Technology Dangerous? The company uses facial recognition to pick a user's face out of photos. Facebook claims that scanning and recognizing your face helps “protect you from a stranger using your photo to impersonate you.” But as reported by WWD,
the social media giant wants to
monetize facial recognition further. Facebook calls the potential practice “augmented commerce.” The idea is to help brands transform simple Facebook ads into interactive AR experiences. But it isn't clear what Facebook or its ad partners will do with the data gained from scanning a user's face. Facebook also holds several patents regarding facial recognition technology. One such patent is described as a way to set a “trust level” for each person who enters a store. The system could figure out which shoppers were “trustworthy,” by recognizing their faces and connecting it to the data in their Facebook profile. Theresa Payton, former White House Information Officer, via 'Digital Trends'