By Megan Diener

Facebook’s facial-recognition feature has sparked worldwide criticism by Internet privacy watchdogs, activists and the European Union.

At the centre of the controversy is the recent activation of a default setting that automatically tags users, without prior consent, in photographs posted on the social networking website.

Although the testing phase of the advanced feature made its début in December last year, it has only recently been activated as a default setting.

The fiasco started when a security company, Sophos, recently published an annual report on Internet privacy.

Senior technology consultant Graham Cluley objected to the photo-tagging feature stating that it was enabled without notice or prior consent from users.