The European Union and Markey upset about Facebook’s facial recognition

Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the European Union will launch a probe into Facebook’s “Tag Suggestions” feature, which uses facial recognition technology to tag people in photos people upload to Facebook. The big problem is that the feature’s default setting is to be turned on, which basically means people aren’t really actively consenting to the feature. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is also alarmed by Tag Suggestions. He said in a statement: “If this new feature is as useful as Facebook claims, it should be able to stand on its own, without an automatic sign up that changes users’ privacy settings without their permission.”

For its part, Facebook says, look, no one’s complaining and if anyone wants to shut it off, we tell them how on our blog.