Meta testing Face ID-like video selfie to recover your Instagram or Facebook account

Meta is testing facial recognition as a way of letting you instantly recover your Instagram or Facebook account if you find yourself locked out. The process of submitting a video selfie looks much the same as that used to register for Face ID, requiring you to turn your head in different directions.

The company is also using the technology to detect and block scams using celebrities …

Recovering your Instagram or Facebook account

You can be locked out of your account if you forget your login details, no longer have access to a two-factor authentication device, or a hacker takes over your account.

Regaining access can be time-consuming, with many of those affected reporting that it takes the company a long time to respond. If a hacker has changed the email address and phone number associated with your account, it can be very difficult to prove the account is yours.

You might already be asked to submit a video selfie to help the company confirm the account belongs to you, but manual verification takes time.

Using facial recognition for instant recovery

What the company is testing now is an instant recovery option based on facial recognition technology. You’ll be asked to take a few seconds of video, moving your head in much the same way as registering your face for Face ID, and will then be instantly granted access.

The demo shown by Meta makes it clear that you can choose between automatic recognition and manual review, so nobody will have to use it if they don’t want to, and the company says that the data is deleted as soon as the process is complete.

As soon as someone uploads a video selfie, it will be encrypted and stored securely. It will never be visible on their profile, to friends or to other people on Facebook or Instagram. We immediately delete any facial data generated after this comparison regardless of whether there’s a match or not. 

The company is also using the same tech to detect ads which use the faces of celebrities. This will flag ads for review, so that Meta can quickly take down scams.

If our systems suspect that an ad may be a scam that contains the image of a public figure at risk for celeb-bait, we will try to use facial recognition technology to compare faces in the ad to the public figure’s Facebook and Instagram profile pictures. If we confirm a match and determine the ad is a scam, we’ll block it. 

It’s not known how many accounts currently have access to the test feature.

Images: Meta