Facebook is supposedly testing out a facial identification system that will confirm if the account user is a real person or not.
The discovery was made by reverse-engineer Jane Munchun Wong (@wongmjane) who is known to tap into hidden features from social media platforms.
Users will be required to record a 30 second selfie video at eye level and tilt their head in different angles so Facebook can get a full record of what they look like.
This is how Facebook's Facial Recognition-based Identity Verification looks like
It asks me to look at several directions within the circle
It explicitly states no one else will see the video selfie and will be deleted 30 days after the confirmation pic.twitter.com/296bGRDyYZ
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 5, 2019
To ensure Facebook users that they still have their privacy, a message pops up that says: “No one else will see this video, and it will be deleted 30 days after your identity is confirmed.”
Although the system has the same idea as Apple ID facial recognition, Facebook told VentureBeat that it’s only used for detecting motion. The system is simply an advanced version of the “Test if you’re human test” otherwise known as CAPTCHA.
“This test is one of the steps we use,” a Facebook spokesperson said. “It does not use facial recognition. Instead, it detects motion and whether a face is in the video.”
Additionally, Facebook told VentureBeat that only accounts that are suspected of being fake will be required to submit video selfies to verify that they are human.
This will help keep bots at bay which is what Facebook has been trying to improve about their platform. In the first half of this year alone, the company disabled over two billion fake accounts on the app.
There is no confirmation at the moment as to whether tis feature will be rolling out on to the platform soon or at all.
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Image credit: Shutterstock.