Continuing his bid to shield Connecticut consumers from online technology run amok, Attorney General George Jepsen now wants answers from Facebook about a breach of privacy protections surrounding its “Tag Suggestions” feature.
Jepsen said Thursday his concern stems from the popular social media website’s feature uses facial recognition software to identify Facebook users in photographs, links the photograph with the user’s name and stores the information in the company’s database without the user being notified. Prior to this change, users had to manually tag others in photos, and those identified were then notified of the tag.
Jepsen said in a statement Thursday that he has requested a sitdown with the Facebook officials to address those issues.
“In Facebook’s desire to promote photo sharing and tagging among its users, it appears to have overlooked a critical component of consumer privacy protection – an opt-in requiring users to affirmatively consent” before Facebook can use those images, Jepsen wrote in a letter Tuesday to Facebook’s director of public policy and its product and regulatory counsel.
“The lack of an opt-in process for Facebook users,” Jepsen wrote, “is troubling because unknowing consumers may have their photos tagged and matched using facial recognition software without their express consent, potentially exposing them to unwelcome attention and loss of privacy.”
On Monday, Jepsen demanded answers from New York banking giant, Citigroup, about its recent data breach that affected a small number of credit-card accounts in order to protect any affected state residents.
