PimEyes is a free facial recognition tool that allows users to find their photos or those of another person on the Internet. Since its opening, it currently has six thousand members. However, the platform has received much criticism from privacy advocates. They fear that malicious people may use it to harass.
This Polish site was created in 2017 as a simple leisure project, but it attracted attention thanks to an article published sure Medium.
Pixabay Credits
–
It is rather simple to use. Just upload any image or take a photo in real time and all the photos posted online associated with the desired face will be displayed.
In addition, a paid option, subscribed by three hundred and fifty Internet users, allows you to receive an alert when the desired face appears or has been published on the Internet. To do this, the algorithm uses the data available on sites accessible to the public.
Powerful technology for individuals
The facial recognition site encountered a problem after using images from social media. He has collected more than three billion photos that are used by the FBI, homeland security and other police forces around the world from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The three platforms then asked him to stop.
“This powerful surveillance technology sold to individuals is frightening. It places women and children at unprecedented risk. It will allow state surveillance, commercial control and even harassment on an unimaginable scale ”said Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch.
PimEyes admitted to having worked with the police, by supplying Paliscope, a software tool used by the police. However, the start-up stressed that the images uploaded to its site are neither saved nor indexed. The fingerprints of a face would only be encoded and temporarily retained on the servers.
Read also : Microsoft joins the protest against facial recognition
Un service premium
“Each tool could be used in the wrong way, but our privacy policy prevents people from using it for harassment. If you found faces only posted on Facebook there, it means that someone else has already published it elsewhere ”said a spokesperson for PimEyes in an email.
PimEyes also offers a premium service which allows you to capture up to twenty-five images and to be notified each time one of these photos is put online. The idea would be to protect the privacy of each individual against false profiles, image leaks and unauthorized use of their photos.
Read also : IBM makes a cross that facial recognition
–
