Valued Opinions Reveals People are Unsure About Facebook Tag Suggestions Facial Recognition

LONDON, July 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Valued Opinions has revealed that the majority of people don't like or don't mind the Facebook's new facial recognition feature.

Market research surveys carried out by Valued Opinions show the new Facebook feature, called 'Tag Suggestions' has proved a controversial topic.

Valued Opinions ran an online poll which was designed to find out how current Facebook users view facial recognition with results showing 35% of American respondents don't like the feature, 35% don't mind it and only 16.5% of the respondents admitted to liking the new feature.

This new system allows Facebook to recognise someone the user knows, or the user themselves, in a photograph and 'tag' them automatically.

Users do have the option to deactivate this feature but complaints have arisen because members feel they were not sufficiently notified about the global launch. The face tagging feature was introduced in the US during December 2010 and launched globally in June 2011. The facial recognition feature means that Facebook is now embroiled in a privacy controversy as many privacy groups have filed complaints with the US Federal Trade Commission over Facebook's automated facial recognition technology.

The feature was originally launched on the US only version of Facebook, but it has been recently rolled out to most of the social networks remaining 600 million users without prior notification. While the feature only applies itself to newly uploaded photos, all users are automatically opted in to the feature, and therefore have to turn it off if they wish to opt out.

About Valued Opinions:

The  poll  was conducted online utilizing the Valued Opinions Panel in June 2011 among 1,000 adults aged 18 and over. Owned and operated by Research Now Ltd, Valued Opinions is a consumer research panel made up of individuals participating in market research surveys in exchange for rewards. Through various partnerships with popular international retailers, Valued Opinions' members can earn and redeem credits for gift vouchers accepted online and in stores. Members also have the opportunity to donate rewards to charitable causes if they choose

Research Now Ltd is the leading global online sampling and online data collection company. With over 6 million panelists in 38 countries worldwide, Research Now Ltd enables companies to listen to and interact with real consumers and business decision makers in order to make key business decisions. Research Now Ltd offers a full suite of data collection services, including social media sampling, and operates leading opinion panels around the world. The company has multilingual staff located in 23 offices around the globe.

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SOURCE Research Now