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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsMicrosoft's OneDrive spots your mates, remembers their faces, and won't forget easily
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/13/microsoft_face_grouping_ondrive/Then shalt thee change the setting three times, no more!
Microsoft's OneDrive is increasing the creepiness quotient by using AI to spot faces in photos and group images accordingly. Don't worry, it can be turned off three times a year.
This writer has been enrolled in a OneDrive feature on mobile to group photos by people. We're not alone others have also reported it turning up on their devices.
According to Microsoft, the feature is coming soon but has yet to be released and it's likely to send a shiver down the spines of privacy campaigners.
It relies on users telling OneDrive who the face is in a given image, and will then create a collection of photos based on the identified person. Obviously, user interaction is required, and asking a user to identify faces in an image is hardly innovative. However, OneDrive's grouping of images based on an identified face is different. According to Microsoft's documentation, a user can only change the setting to enable or disable the new People section three times a year.
. . .
This writer has been enrolled in a OneDrive feature on mobile to group photos by people. We're not alone others have also reported it turning up on their devices.
According to Microsoft, the feature is coming soon but has yet to be released and it's likely to send a shiver down the spines of privacy campaigners.
It relies on users telling OneDrive who the face is in a given image, and will then create a collection of photos based on the identified person. Obviously, user interaction is required, and asking a user to identify faces in an image is hardly innovative. However, OneDrive's grouping of images based on an identified face is different. According to Microsoft's documentation, a user can only change the setting to enable or disable the new People section three times a year.
. . .
If you believe them on that "3 times" promise.
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Microsoft's OneDrive spots your mates, remembers their faces, and won't forget easily (Original Post)
erronis
Oct 13
OP
BadgerKid
(4,931 posts)1. Microsoft rediscovers photo tagging?
It was a big concern when Facebook came out with it, allowing someone to tag/identify you without informing you. Not sure if you can block tagging these days though.
Intractable
(1,409 posts)2. It's simple. Don't store your stuff in the cloud.
Google, Microsoft, and others always push to have you use their cloud drive storage. Don't do it!
Anything you put in the cloud is owned by the owners of that cloud, not you.
erronis
(22,032 posts)3. True this. But most M$ Office 365 users don't really understand that their data is in the cloud.
Last edited Mon Oct 13, 2025, 05:37 PM - Edit history (1)
True Dough
(25,197 posts)4. I disabled OneDrive a while back
They can take that junk and stick it you-know-where!
UTUSN
(76,373 posts)5. Creepiness is the word!