The social media giant Facebook is testing a new captcha feature that asks users to upload a clear photo of their face so it can verify and grant access to their account in case it is locked due to suspicious activity.
One Twitter user, @flexlibris who’s friend had their Facebook account locked over suspicious activity shared a screenshot in which Facebook asked them to “Please upload a photo of yourself that clearly shows your face. We’ll check it and then permanently delete it from our servers.”
“A friend sent me this: Facebook is now locking users out of account features, then demanding that those users “verify” their account to get back in by scanning an image of their face. AN IMAGE OF THEIR FACE,” @flexlibris tweeted.
What would happen if you don’t upload your photo?
According to several people who have seen the warning message and declined to upload their photo; Facebook locked their account, while those who uploaded their photos but was considered “invalid” by Facebook also had their accounts locked.
A Reddit user /Lostinthemasses said the photo test started back in April 2017 while another user /Jawad19 said that “Same happened with me today I submitted my photo then FB said we would email you in next 72 hours if it meets our requirement till then we disable your account for security reasons.”
Wired got in touch with Facebook whose spokesperson revealed that the photo test is to “help us catch suspicious activity at various points of interaction on the site, including creating an account, sending Friend requests, setting up ads payments, and creating or editing ads.”
It is true that the new captcha test is not only creepy but also against users online privacy. However, this is not the first time when Facebook has shown interest in people’s personal photos. The social network has also created a testing system that uses image recognition technology to locate revenge porn and delete it automatically but to do it Facebook firstly needs copies of your nude pictures.