Irish and German regulators have confirmed that Facebook has deleted all trace of European facial recognition data, following a privacy outcry last year.
The move comes as the social network reintroduces the controversial tagging tool in the US.
The Irish Data Protection Commission and a German regular independently confirmed that Facebook completely deleted its facial recognition templates, as Facebook had promised to do by October 15.
“I can confirm that we recently reviewed the source code and execution process used in the deletion process,” said the Irish DPC spokeswoman Saud Ciara O’Sullivan. “[I] can confirm that we were satisfied with the processes used by Facebook to delete the templates in line with its commitment.”
Facebook is subject to the Irish Data Protection Commission because the company’s European office is headquartered in Ireland. Major corporations’ European headquarters are based out of Ireland to avoid US income taxes.
Facebook announced that it would delete all stored facial recognition data from European users’ accounts last September after receiving a recommendation from the Irish DPC to make changes to its privacy policies.
The German privacy regulator, Hamburg’s commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, also confirmed that the facial recognition code and data had been wiped in the EU. Facebook’s compliance also officially closed the Hamburg DPC’s privacy case against Facebook.
The social network said it had already turned off the feature for new users in the EU when the DPC made the recommendation, saying that templates for existing users would be deleted by 15 October.
The technology is powered by Face.com, a firm Facebook bought back in 2011. The tool recommends friends and other users to tag in Facebook photos.
In the US, the feature has been rereleased with no changes in the US, keeping the facial recognition feature as default. Facebook confirmed that facial recognition will remain off in the EU region “for the moment.”
