Meta brings back face scanning to combat scams and account hacking
Facebook is getting ready to scan your face again. | Image: Meta
Facebook and Instagram are testing new facial recognition tools that could help users quickly restore compromised accounts and combat fake celebrity-endorsed scams. Meta announced its plan to roll out experimental features that can scan a user’s face to verify their identity by comparing it against profile pictures on Facebook and Instagram.
The first usage of these tools aim to protect both celebrities and everyday people from so-called “celeb-bait” ads that impersonate notable figures to trick users into visiting scam websites. Meta currently uses automated technology like machine learning to detect content that violates its policies but says celeb-bait can be difficult to distinguish from legitimate ads.
“If our systems suspect that…