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Facebook buys facial recognition firm
- Published on Tuesday, 19 June 2012 14:17
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Facebook has once again reached for their oversized (and some would say overrated) chequebook, and bought up Face.com – an Israeli startup specialising in facial recognition.
Face.com already provides the software that allows Facebook users to easily identify and tag their friends.
Facebook told the BBC: "People who use Facebook enjoy sharing photos and memories with their friends, and Face.com's technology has helped to provide the best photo experience.
Facebook has said that the acquisition does not mean that there will be any changes to the enduringly popular tagging feature, which allows users to identify and tag friends in pictures in a single click.
"This transaction simply brings a world-class team and a long-time technology vendor in house," said the social network.
Although the exact details are under wraps currently, Reuters estimates the deal to be worth £35-38 million.
While the software remains popular with Facebook users, especially those suffering from hangovers while uploading drunken pictures from the night before, privacy groups continue to voice their concerns about both the technology and Facebook as a whole.
UK campaign group Privacy International spoke to the BBC regarding Face.com’s technology:
"Facebook are in the process of building the largest and most accurate facial recognition database in the world, and with great power comes great responsibility," said the organisation's head of communications, Emma Draper.
"We would hope to see very strict safeguards on how this information is stored and who has access to it, particularly if - as seems increasingly likely - Facebook is going to start making money from it."
Face.com said in a statement that "by working with Facebook directly, and joining their team, we'll have more opportunities to build amazing products that will be employed by consumers - that's all we've ever wanted to do".
The 11-man startup is based in Tel Aviv, situated in Rothschild Avenue, a part of the city which has become known as Silicon Boulevard thanks to the growing number of tech startups.
The deal signifies an ever-growing portfolio of image and mobile apps for Facebook as it rolls towards the launch of its own smartphone. Two months ago, Facebook shelled out a whopping $1bn for Instagram, an app that has driven an astonishing increase in pseudo-artistic photography.
It has also launched a photo sharing app simply called Camera, which allows users to take photos, tweak them, and add a variety of filters.
