Facebook asks for photos of some users' faces to sign them in

Anyone else feeling a little nervous?
By Victoria Ho  on 
Facebook asks for photos of some users' faces to sign them in
Say cheese Credit: Getty Images

Facebook's fight against spambots now includes a request for user photos with their faces "clearly" visible.

Wired confirmed with the social network that the test will go out to users who try to perform actions that spambots typically do, such as creating accounts, sending friend requests, and creating ads.

Several isolated examples of the photo request have been spotted over the past few months by users online, but it's likely to start going out more widely now that Facebook is comfortable confirming it.

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It also appears that Facebook might lock users out of their accounts for hours at a time while they review their photos. That means this security process might not be as routine as recovering a password, for example.

While Facebook has promised to "permanently delete" your picture from its servers after the process is complete, remember that it also recently started asking for users' nude photos.

Those nude photos, the company has said, will also be deleted from its servers. But now Facebook will have your faces and your nudes -- even if it's for a supposedly short time.

Anyone else feeling a little nervous?

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Victoria Ho

Victoria Ho is Mashable's Asia Editor, based in Singapore. She previously reported on news and tech at The Business Times, TechCrunch and ZDNet. When she isn't writing, she's making music with her band


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