Google+ allows photo tagging via facial recognition

 

Matt Steiner, engineering lead on the Google+ Photos team, said the feature dubbed "Find My Face" will be rolling out in the next few days.

 

"By turning on Find My Face, Google+ can prompt people you know to tag your face when it appears in photos. Of course, you have control over which tags you accept or reject, and you can turn the feature on or off in Google+ settings," he said in a Google+ post.

 

A blog post on computer security firm Sophos' website noted this was not Google's first attempt at facial recognition.

 

It said Google had offered the feature on Picasa Web Albums for a little more than three years.

 

On the other hand, it noted "rival" social networking site Facebook introduced a similar facial recognition function earlier, but required users to opt-out of the service.

 

This caused much consternation in their user community over privacy issues.

 

Sophos said the "Find My Face" feature will suggest to people in one's circles or who have +1'd a user's post to tag one in photos they post that appear to contain one's face.

 

The feature will provide a prompt like "Is this Matt Steiner?" when it thinks a Google+ user appears in a friend's photo.

 

The Google+ user will be notified if he or she is tagged and have full control to remove the tag or turn off the feature if he or she finds it creepy.

 

"The comfort level Google+ users will have with Google associating their mug with their real name will likely reduce the adoption of this feature, but for users who use Google+ for photo sharing it might be a nice option," it said. — LBG, GMA News