On Tuesday, Facebook expanded their efforts to prevent revenge porn by bringing a program that was previously tested out in Australia to the U.K., Canada, and the United States. The catch? You have to send them the pictures first. In a world where there are no privacy scandals (a.k.a. not this one), this would seem to be a much easier sell.
It works like this: The company will let you upload nude or intimate photos that you fear could be shared on Facebook, Instagram, or Facebook Messenger. Then (in simple terms) it will basically fingerprint them to prevent those images from going up on those platforms.
The process was broken down by the company's Global Head of Safety, Antigone Davis, who wrote:
When the pilot program was first initiated in Australia, people were fearful that some pervert working for Facebook (which the company deems "specially-trained representatives") would have access to their private images. Facebook attempted to explain that away by saying those reps would simply review the picture before "hashing" it. They added to that by saying once the image was hashed, the company "creates a human-unreadable, numerical fingerprint of it," while getting rid of the original photo. But if you've been a Yahoo!, Facebook, Ashley Madison, or PSN user, or have sent information to a company that was breached recently, then it's understandable to be skeptical.
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