NameTag Dev Gets A Cease & Desist Letter From Facebook

You may have heard about NameTag, a facial recognition app that matches up potential couples. However, before doing a match, the app can check a person’s name, occupation and even visit their Facebook, Instagram or Twitter profiles. Not only that, but the app can also check through over 45,000 entries in the National Sex Offender Registry, so you know immediately if you should avoid the other person. The app was developed initially for iOS and Android, but its developer, FacialNetwork, later made a Google Glass version that can scan a persons face using Glass’ camera, and in addition to the above mentioned information it will also compare the person’s face with dating profiles from OKCupid.com, Match.com and PlentyofFish.com.

As you might have guessed, the app is pretty controversial. Last Wednesday, on September 10, FacialNetwork released a second demo of its NameTag app for Google Glass. You can watch the video by following this link. The first demo of the facial recognition app for Google Glass was released in December last year, and this new demo shows that NameTag is more than 6X FASTER than its predecessor with improved accuracy and more features. The demo showed the Glassware app scn twenty faces in real time, all of which were recognized correctly: “We can now get match results back in under 1 second, when just a few months ago searches took upwards of 10 seconds in some cases” said Kevin Alan Tussy, CEO of FacialNetwork.

However, the more interesting news came in the form of a cease and desist letter from Facebook, which claims that NameTag has violated Facebook’s terms of use. Prior to receiving the cease and desist letter from Facebook, FacialNetwork’s access to “Facebook Login” (one of the identity verification options in NameTag) was cut off. FacialNetwork CEO Kevin Alan Tussy said: “The fact that this letter comes right after we announced a key partnership, the hiring of a new rockstar COO, and a major announcement of our entire suite of applications makes me think the timing of this cease and desist letter is more than just a coincidence [...] We haven’t violated Facebook’s terms of use.  The fact is that Facebook has its own facial recognition division and it’s possible that this letter is an attempt by Facebook to try to slow us down.”

Facebook did not comment on the problem, as it is the company’s policy not to comment on such legal issues. As you can see from FacialNetwork CEO Kevin Alan Tussy’s statement, NameTag’s developers believe that the cease and desist letter is actually a ploy from Facebook to slow down the development of NameTag, as both FacialNetworks and Facebook are working on facial recognition software and as such they are in direct competition in this niche. Regarding NameTag, FacialNetowkr’s face recognition app, it is not banned on Glass, even though Google specifically said that facial recognition apps for Glass will not be authorized; however, Google did say that such apps can still be created and will be distributed separately by their developers.