Microsoft Quietly Removed Its Huge Facial Recognition Database

It is undeniable that facial recognition tech contributes to global development; however, it also can have some drawbacks. Relating to this issue, Microsoft has spoken about how much it wants a proper regulation over facial recognition tech.

Last year, Brad Smith – Microsoft’s president, appealed to Congress to take actions to control the technology, which is said to have "broad societal ramifications and potential for abuse." The company is so concerned about the matter that it refused to sell this technology to California police forces. Now, as part of its effort, it has quietly deleted the MS Celeb database that holds over 10 million photos of around 100,000 people.

In 2016, MS Celeb was published, which Microsoft described as the world's largest publicly available data set on facial recognition. Military researchers and global technology companies used the database in facial recognition system training. Though the set’s photos were used without owners’ consent, they managed to obtain the photos celebrities from the Internet based on a Creative Commons license. Adam Harvey, a researcher in Berlin, was the one to uncover this database.

The point is that MS Celeb also included images of "arguably private individuals" (as called by FT.com) which include authors, journalists, and more. According to Harvey, who leads the Megapixels project that reveals details about such data sets, although Microsoft has delete MS Celeb, its contents are still available online. Harvey said:

After FT.com’s investigation into facial recognition tech and Microsoft’s responsibility, the deletion is quickly conducted. Nonetheless, it was explained to the FT.com as a trouble-free protocol matter. According to Microsoft, the site, whose purpose was academic, was operated by a worker who no longer works for Microsoft. Therefore, Microsoft has not particularly spoken out the move. However, it means that the company complies with the law.