Putting the Face in Facebook: New default feature allows website to automatically tag pictures through facial recognition

Posted on June 20, 2011

By Santiago Nocera

You will never be able to live down the embarrassment of last Friday night or get out of that seemingly harmless lie about staying in. Someone you barely know has snapped your photo and Facebook will identify your face, even before you’ve logged in.

News about this has been circulating as far back as December, but Facebook only fully developed and made this update official in the past couple months. The update incorporates facial recognition to make picture tagging simpler and more convenient.  Your friends will receive suggestions to tag you in pictures you may appear.

It may make the picture tagging process simpler, but is it really more convenient? And what about privacy? While users will receive notifications for tagged pictures, it gives the website the ability to scan and identify any and all pictures that are submitted. Any and all pictures – something to think about the next time a trigger-happy friend pulls out a camera.

A similar system for Apple’s iPhoto uses facial recognition to identify people – but that is not a program that has direct connection to the Internet. Photos are now not only uploaded online, but scanned for identification as well.

Everybody has pictures that they would do anything to make disappear. In a world where social media is one of the biggest forms of communication between not only friends but employers and clients, the pictures we choose to upload are of the utmost importance. Our relationships, careers and dignity depend on it!

While there is a simple process to remove this feature from your profile, the issue among most people has been that it is set up as a default. Facebook implemented facial recognition with no warning or announcement, leaving users baffled and even upset at what many are considering to be a significant breach of privacy. This reaction is not surprising as this follows a frequent trend that Facebook has had of implementing new privacy features without word. The latest news now reports that the privacy implications of facial recognition are under discussion by data-protection agencies.

Until then, Facebook users that are hesitant to let their pictures be scanned for facial recognition (for lack of privacy or for embarrassment from last weekend’s party) should visit their privacy settings online to change the default.

Control of Facebook privacy settings has become more important than ever, and picture tagging should be treated with the same importance. When a picture says a thousand words, it’s just as important as your personal info.

Catagories: Social Media,Technology

Cignal: Testimonial

Posted on June 15, 2011

“BIGfish did an amazing job in developing and executing a fully integrated marketing program that promoted our network across 26 countries.”

- Mark Land, co-founder Cignal Global Communications

Catagories: Successes,Testimonials

Owning Industry Press Coverage, Even If You’re Not An 800 Pound Gorilla

Posted on June 1, 2011


The Client
PhoneTag delivers the best voicemail-to-text service available on the market.

The Challenge
PhoneTag came to BIGfish with 20 beta users, needing help with product positioning, developing their corporate message, launching their service and maintaining a four year long competitive PR campaign. PhoneTag raised five million dollars and was up against one very large competitor, Spinvox, which raised nearly $500 million. BIGfish was tasked to launch the product and compete with Spinvox in the public media arena. In such a new industry, the media winner would most likely win new customers, partnerships and integrations with major telecommunication companies.

The Result
As a result of BIGfish’s PR and marketing campaign, PhoneTag ran circles around Spinvox, which burned through a string of very large PR firms. With seven employees, no sales team and the support from BIGfish, PhoneTag grew to 30,000 paying users in the first year and received product reviews from top-tier press including: the front page of The New York Times business section, Walter Mossberg’s Wall Street Journal personal technologycolumn, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, PC Magazine, Inc. Magazine, PC World, InformationWeek, TIME, and Forbes, among other print and trade publications. Broadcast coverage included The Big Idea with Donnie Deutsch, CNBC’s Power Lunch and Morning Call, CBS’s The Early Show, NBC’s The Today Show, CNN, Fox Business News, HGTV and National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. BIGfish also worked closely with bloggers to maintain continual coverage on Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget and Mashable, among others. In 2010 unable to compete with Phonetag, Spinvox closed its doors, while PhoneTag was acquired by Ditech Networks. Today, Phonetag is integrated into every major US carrier network and BIGfish continues to advise on the product marketing and PR for the service. For a full list of media coverage attained by BIGfish on behalf of PhoneTag visit: http://bit.ly/PhoneTagNews.

Catagories: Successes