FTC Everalbum regulations on facial recognition in the Ever app

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced its agreement with Everalbum Inc. (Everalbum) for its Ever App, a photo and video storage app, due to its alleged consumer deception related to in-app use. facial recognition technology and its retention practices around disabled accounts.

In accordance with the settlement agreement, Everalbum must remove the patterns and algorithms it has developed using photos and videos uploaded by users and obtain the express consent of its users before applying facial recognition to a photo. . FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra said facial recognition technology is “fundamentally flawed and reinforces harmful prejudices.” As the regulation and enforcement of this technology surely increases, the FTC seeks to suspend or ban and restrict the use of this software.

The Ever app (which no longer exists since August 2020), allowed users to upload their photos and videos to a cloud storage platform. The app then used facial recognition technology to automatically sort users’ photos and videos to identify a “friend” feature. However, according to the FTC’s allegations, Everalbum’s use of facial recognition was NOT limited to the friend function of its app; Between September 2017 and August 2019, it reportedly combined facial images from its users’ accounts with facial images from publicly available datasets. The combined data was then used to develop Everalbum’s facial recognition technology. This technology (since it is no longer used in the Ever application) is now marketed through Paravision, which is a company that provides services related to building security, payments and travel. A representative for Paravision said the FTC’s regulations reflect “changes that have already taken place” as it continues to use technology in a more ethical manner. The new Paravision model also does not use Ever app user data previously collected from consumers.

This regulation raises more questions (than answers) about how to manage and use the data used to train facial recognition software. This regulation also highlights the potential for an increase in consumer class actions regarding the use of facial recognition technology, especially as consumers are increasingly aware of the use of this technology, its operation and uses perhaps recklessly by companies with which many consumers are freely sharing their data.