Facebook has apologized for the new photo-tagging feature that it rolled out globally, admitting it didn't handle the release very well. The feature uses facial recognition technology to automatically suggest friends to tag in newly uploaded photos. Unfortunately, explicit permission was not sought from users, which resulted in a backlash against the social networking giant. In a statement, Facebook said: "We should have been more clear with people during the rollout process when this became available to them."

Security company Sophos criticized Facebook in its blog for not adopting a stance of "privacy by default." Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley wrote that "the onus should not be on Facebook users having to 'opt-out' of the facial recognition feature, but instead on users having to 'opt-in.' Yet again, it feels like Facebook is eroding the online privacy of its users by stealth." While there is no doubt that each privacy debacle like this results in some users walking away from Facebook, it is hard to imagine the majority of users caring--or even being aware.

For now, Sophos has listed out the steps to disable face recognition here.

For more:
- check out this article at InformationWeek
- check out this article at ZDNet Asia

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