Facebook is enhancing privacy safeguards for users as it complies with new European rules designed to make it easier for consumers to give and withdraw consent for the use of their data.
Facial recognition technology has been used in most parts of the world for six years, but was initially removed in the EU in 2012 following protests from regulators and privacy advocates.
It will now be offered as an opt-in feature in Europe ahead of the rollout of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), new EU data privacy laws which give users more control over how their information is used.
Facebook's face recognition technology uses software that create a "template" of a user's face based on other images they are tagged in, which is then used to make tagging suggestions in other photos.
The tool is one of several measures users will be asked to manage as part of new privacy features - as well as whether they want adverts shown to them based on data from Facebook partners and if they want political, religious and relationship information on their profile shared.
Users will have the opportunity to select an "accept and continue" option to automatically agree to Facebook's settings - including turning on face recognition - or select a "manage data setting" option where they can confirm they would like the feature turned off.
The move comes at a tense time for the company, which is already at the centre of a data privacy scandal linked to political research firm Cambridge Analytica.
