Senate Hearing To Examine Facebook’s Facial Recognition

Facebook’s use of facial recognition technology will be discussed during a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

According to The Hill, Facebook will send Rob Sherman, its Washington DC-based Manager of Privacy and Public Policy to meet with a sub-panel of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Al Franken called for the hearing.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), chairman of the Senate Privacy subcommittee, has voiced concern about Facebook not including sufficient privacy protections in the tagging feature. In comments to the Department of Commerce, Franken has written that Facebook likely holds the largest privately held collection of face prints in the world.

Facebook fully launched facial recognition for photo tagging in June 2011, and the move immediately prompted numerous privacy concerns — along with articles about turning off the feature. Facebook recently acquired Face.com to boost its facial recognition capabilities.

The hearing won’t only focus on Facebook’s use of facial recognition. In calling for the hearing, Franken also noted that government agencies including police and motor vehicle registration departments also employ facial recognition technology.