Facebook plan uncovered to SPY on users through their own smartphone cameras to analyze their facial expressions

by Ethan A. Huff, Natural News:

The internet is buzzing with chatter about a new Facebook “feature” that allegedly peers into smartphone users’ eyes to detect their emotional states. The social media giant has reportedly filed a patent for the new technology which, should it be officially launched, would allow for more customized advertising tailored to people’s feelings.

It’s a downright creepy concept – that Facebook has the capacity to hijack smartphone cameras and literally watch users scroll through their news feeds – but one that people need to be aware of if they’re at all concerned about their personal privacy. Facebook’s facial analysis technology has been in secret development for years, and now that the cat is out of the bag many users are reconsidering their use of the platform altogether.

Imagery of what Facebook submitted to obtain a patent for the technology depicts users peering into their smartphones as the devices detect and analyze certain features like mouth shape and eye movement. From this, Facebook is able to gather data on how its users respond to videos, photos, news, and advertising.

Software company CBI Insights discovered the renderings back in 2015 and linked them to Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to develop “emotion technology” for Facebook. The plan all along seems to have been to pick up on “emotion characteristics” via smartphone cameras and use this data to further hone Facebook’s monetization.

“Patent documents contain illustrations showing a person holding a smartphone with a camera taking a picture from which ’emotion characteristics’ like smiling or frowning are detected,” writes Margi Murphy for The Sun (U.K.).

“If the person appears to like what they’re seeing, Facebook could place more of the same type of content in front of them.”

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The secret development of this technology is only just now making headlines, which is why many people still don’t know it exists. But according to experts, they’re about it find out, and it could put off a great many of them from ever using the service again.

“On the one hand, they want to identify which content is most engaging and respond to audience’s reactions,” the company wrote in a blog post. “[O]n the other, emotion-detection is technically difficult, not to mention a PR and ethical minefield.”

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