Meta says it's getting rid of facial recognition on Facebook - but that won't apply to the metaverse

• Facebook announced Tuesday it's shutting down its facial recognition system.
• It said it made the decision because of "growing societal concerns."

Facebook has said it won't scan its social media platform with facial recognition software anymore - but its new parent company Meta can't make the same promise.

Facebook announced Tuesday it was shutting down its facial recognition system and deleting more than a billion people's biometric data due to "growing societal concerns."

However, a spokesperson for Meta, Facebook's new parent company, told Recode it hadn't ruled out using facial recognition and other biometric systems when building out its metaverse products.

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Meta spokesperson Jason Grosse said: "We believe this technology has the potential to enable positive use cases in the future that maintain privacy, control, and transparency, and it's an approach we'll continue to explore as we consider how our future computing platforms and devices can best serve people's needs.

"For any potential future applications of technologies like this, we'll continue to be public about intended use, how people can have control over these systems and their personal data, and how we're living up to our responsible innovation framework."

The word metaverse is a term borrowed from science fiction, and refers to a future version of the internet that users access using technology like virtual and augmented reality headsets, rather than phones or laptops.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in July he wants Facebook to become a "metaverse company." The company's rebrand split its business into two distinct halves: its traditional social media platforms, Family of Apps, and Reality Labs. Reality Labs will focus on building metaverse products, including VR and AR headsets.

Activists have raised concerns about Facebook's face-tagging systems in the past, in particular when that data is able to be scraped by third parties such as facial recognition startup Clearview AI.

When contacted for comment, a Meta spokesperson directed Insider to the company's blog post from Tuesday, containing Grosse's statement.