Facebook Could Soon Ask You to Upload a Photo to Confirm Your Identity, Test Shows

To strengthen security for its over two billion users, Facebook may soon ask them to upload a photo that clearly shows their face to prove that they are not a bot. Facebook is testing a new type of captcha test that will use faces to verify whether real users are accessing the social network, and not bots. The fresh development has been spotted in a screenshot and has been confirmed by the company. Notably, tech giants like Apple and Microsoft already have their own solutions (Face ID, Windows Hello) to provide face verification on their systems and platforms.

Twitter user @flexlibris on Tuesday posted a screenshot that shows the new verification method. As seen in the screenshot, Facebook asks users to upload a photo that "clearly shows" their face to verify their identity. "We'll check it and then permanently delete it from our servers," the screenshot reads.

Facebook confirmed the test to Wired on Tuesday, saying the photo test was intended to "help [Facebook] catch suspicious activity at various points of interaction on the site, including creating an account, sending Friend requests, setting up ads payments, and creating or editing ads".

A Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying that the photo test is one of several methods, both automated and manual, used to detect suspicious activity.

The process is automated, including identifying suspicious activity and checking the photo. To determine if the account is authentic, Facebook looks at whether the photo is unique, the report said. The test was spotted by users as far back as April, the report notes.

Further, users were locked out of their accounts while the photo was being verified.

A message said: "You Can't Log In Right Now. We'll get in touch with you after we've reviewed your photo. You'll now be logged out of Facebook as a security precaution."

Facebook users who suspect their account has been compromised can go to Facebook.com/hacked.