It's always risky to send nude pictures to... well, anyone. We can't control where they end up or whose phone they get sent to. People have now started "revenge porn" which means that ex–partners are posting nude pictures as a revenge for the damage caused by the relationship. 54,000 incidence of revenge porn are reported by users every month. BUT, fear not, Facebook is coming to the rescue.
Facebook is now actually asking their users to send in nude photos of themselves if they are worried that a specific photo will be posted on social media. They allow the user to fill out a form and then send the message to themselves via the Facebook Messenger app with which Facebook will use an artificial intelligence tool to match the image with a unique digital fingerprint that alerts and flags the specific picture before it is shared.
The technology first came out in 2009 with the aim of protecting children from child abuse and exploitation. The technology has been improved since 2009 as people found a way to adjust the files to bypass the system.
This is just one example that shows that Facebook is promoting the safety of its users. The first attempt at this programme is taking place in Australia where Facebook has teamed up with Julia Inman Grant who is an e-safety commissioner of a government agency.
In case you're worried that Facebook has now stored your nude photo, you can breathe a sigh of relief as they are storing the link to the photo that gets matched using the digital fingerprint. However, there is still the risk that hackers could gain access to the system to obtain the images.
Would you take the chance and send your pictures in?