A Meta-Face Test Designed to Detect Celebrity Fraud

Meta said on Monday that it is testing new facial recognition tools designed to protect users from celebrity scams, as well as make it easier for all users to gain access if they are locked out. to their accounts.

The tools are designed to give all users the ability to quickly and securely prove their identity, allowing Meta to detect fraudsters before they can deceive people and reduce the headaches often associated with detection access to a Facebook or Instagram account.

“We hope that by showing how we use this technology to keep people safe, we can help introduce an industry-wide approach to what is really a cyber problem,” Monika Bickert , Meta’s vice president of content strategy. , he said in a call with reporters.

So-called “celeb-bait” scams use images of celebrities, including celebrities and celebrities, to lure social media users into clicking on ads that take them to fraudulent websites designed to steal money. of them or their information.

Meta says it already uses automated technology to scan the millions of ads that pass through the platform every day, looking for scammy content. But it’s common for legitimate ads to feature celebrities, and sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference.

What the new tools will do is match the faces of celebrities in suspected scam ads to profile photos on celebrity Facebook and Instagram pages. If there is a match and a scam is confirmed, Meta will block the ad.

Earlier tests with a small group of celebrities and celebrities produced promising results, detecting scam ads quickly and accurately, Bickert said. In the coming weeks, Meta plans to start signing up more celebrities who have had problems with scam ads in the past, although they will have an opt-out option.

The company also hopes to eventually use facial recognition features to detect scam accounts designed to impersonate famous people. Cybercriminals often use fake accounts to push investment scams or giveaways, trick consumers out of information or money.

Meanwhile, the same kind of facial recognition technology will also be used to give all Meta users a quick way to get back into locked accounts, by allowing them to take and share a video selfie . Like features like Apple’s Face ID, which is used to unlock a smartphone, apps will match a selfie to a user’s account profile picture.

The process takes about a minute and Meta says the new authentication method will be more difficult for cybercriminals to undermine than document-based identity verification.

The proliferation of facial recognition features in recent years, especially in smartphones, has helped consumers get used to using their faces to do everything from finding passwords to to their online accounts to pay for their groceries.

At the same time, privacy advocates and security experts have warned of the potential dangers of facial recognition, pointing out how it could be used to do things like identify protesters in a crowd or shoplifting suspects.

Meta itself shut down its facial recognition system in 2021 and said it would delete the facial data of more than 1 billion users. It cited public concerns and regulatory uncertainty about facial recognition technology as reasons.

Meta said on Monday that the new tools have been reviewed for security and privacy, adding that the facial images used and any data generated from them will be deleted as soon as they are no longer needed. .

And while the devices are being shipped around the world, they have been suspended in the European Union and the United Kingdom, while Meta continues to work with authorities in those areas, as well as in Illinois and Texas, over privacy concerns. of the country. rules.