# Facial recognition data from Facebook archived backup.



## MannDude (Dec 27, 2014)

So, I was recently browsing through an old Facebook backup/archive I made before closing out an old account. I was looking for some old photos I had uploaded from a few years ago, and noticed that at the bottom of the page, beneath the individual albums that existed was a link in the footer that said, "Facial Recognition Data". Clicking it brings up this data. See below:



Any idea where this can be used and what the numbers I've blurred out represent? Does any option exist to purge this data "permanently"? I mean, I already have a national ID card that put my face in the system when I got my driver's licensed renewed (In fact, all US states have to comply with this law soon) so it's not like it doesn't already exist, but for the sake of conversation and general concern, I start this thread.


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## texteditor (Dec 27, 2014)

It probably means your face is amorphous and they have to apply a very liberal fuzz factor to their matching algorithms as a result to get roughly positive matches, or something like that


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## texteditor (Dec 27, 2014)

I'm only half-joking too, it's probably something like that


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## DomainBop (Dec 27, 2014)

I don't see the problem with Facebook using facial recognition software, after all, I have nothing to hide.


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## texteditor (Dec 27, 2014)

DomainBop said:


> I don't see the problem with Facebook using facial recognition software, after all, I have nothing to hide.



It's sarcastic because DomainBop's face is certainly something to hide (in shame)


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## texteditor (Dec 27, 2014)

Try digging up a series of photos of people who looks progressively less and less like you and uploading them, and confirm for facebook that all of them are 'you' and see how far the thresholds shift


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## MannDude (Dec 27, 2014)

texteditor said:


> Try digging up a series of photos of people who looks progressively less and less like you and uploading them, and confirm for facebook that all of them are 'you' and see how far the thresholds shift


Haha, that'd actually probably work. I wonder if I could continue to do this until eventually I could use a photo of a Ninja Turtle or cartoon character to be associated with my name!


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## splitice (Dec 27, 2014)

Its too little data to be any facial recognition algorithm I am familiar with. It could just be a blur function, or a really basic facial recognition algorithm based off simple metrics (i.e distance between eyes).

Source: 6-12 months work on a project in the Computer Vision area. Not an expert though.


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