FTC to scrutinise new Facebook facial recognition feature

US officials will examine changes to Facebook’s privacy policy to determine whether they violate a 2011 agreement with federal regulators, a Federal Trade Commission spokesman confirmed Wednesday after certain changes drew fire from privacy advocates.

Much of the criticism has focused on a proposed “Tag Suggest” feature that would use facial recognition technology to match faces in photos with public profile features, part of a broad set of privacy changes the social networking giant announced on August 29.

FTC spokesman Peter Kaplan said regulators would study the changes as part of the government’s oversight of Facebook’s privacy practices, which began in 2011 after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg apologised for privacy missteps and pledged to obtain users’ permission before sharing their personal data.

“As in all cases, we’re monitoring compliance with the order and part of that involves interacting with Facebook,” Kaplan said on Wednesday.

He added that the commission had no reason to believe that the company had violated its 2011 agreement.