Facebook privacy

Facebook said it's working with European Union regulators to resolve criticism about its new facial recognition feature, but trouble may also be brewing for the social network here in the U.S.

On Wednesday, Facebook's move to enable facial recognition across its entire social networking site raised complaints from privacy advocates and some users over the feature's privacy implications.

The EU's data protection regulators were quick to jump on the issue, telling the Bloomberg news service they will launch an investigation into it. Bloomberg also reported that authorities in the U.K. and Ireland are looking into the matter.

However, Facebook said today it's already working with the EU to answer their questions and try to quell their privacy fears.

"We have heard the comments from some regulators about this product feature and we are providing them with additional information, which we are confident will satisfy any concerns they will have.

Facebook has opted-in all users by default, instead of allowing you to choose whether you want to Facebook digitally scanning your face. The European Union's privacy watchdogs are now looking into the matter to see whether it runs afoul of privacy rules. Security firm Sophos said the facial recognition feature "feels like Facebook is eroding the online privacy of its users by stealth."

Facebook certainly should have allowed users to opt-in to the feature instead of opt-out, and there's little doubt that the social networking giant tends to leak too much user information -- the home address fiasco comes to mind. But photo tagging is something that Facebook is restricting to you and the people you're connected to on Facebook. Here's a rundown of what Facebook is doing, what the restrictions are and how you can stop it from happening if you don't like it.

Facebook's system will be able to recognize the faces of its 500 million to 600 million users worldwide.

Facebook noted that in just a few weeks, its system will scan all photos posted to Facebook and will provide the names of the people who appear in the frame. All of Facebook's users will be automatically added to the database. The facial recognition feature is automatically turned on. Users who don't want the service must manually opt out of it.

Facebook has been criticized over the past year on a few occasions over privacy issues.

Last fall, it was learned that some of Facebook's most popular applications, including FarmVille, Texas HoldEm Poker and FrontierVille, had been sending users' personal information to dozens of advertising and Internet monitoring companies.

In November, the company ran into more privacy complaints over the release of its new messaging system, Facebook Messages.