You think trying to type in those random letters for captcha just to prove you’re not a bot is already a nuisance, wait for the time when Facebook will roll out its newest identity proof measure. Users are saying that the social media giant is testing out a new feature that will ask you to upload your picture to prove you’re an actual person and not a spambot. Facebook says they will delete it from their servers once your humanity has been verified.
A user on Twitter uploaded the screen cap of a prompt that states, “Please upload a photo of yourself that clearly shows your face.” Facebook confirmed that they are indeed testing it out in order to help detect suspicious activity at any point of the interaction on the site. This includes creating new accounts, sending friend requests to, creating ads for pages, setting up ad payments, etc. The whole process is automated, from the detection of suspicious activity to sending the prompt, to checking the photo.
Facebook says it is just one type of identity verification that they will be using, which includes both automated and manual methods. They did not however indicate what are the security measures that they will take to ensure that there will be no manipulation of the system. While taking selfies is second nature to most people, you can never be too careful about having an image of yourself floating out there, maybe to be used for nefarious purposes.
This is still in the testing stage though and so not everyone will get it anyway. Let’s wait for it to be official, official before panicking.
VIA: Wired
The day facebook tries that with me or implements it site wide is the day I cancel my account. I barely use it now, in fact I only use it to sync game progress. It’s one of the last sites I would trust to delete anything it could find useful for another purpose