Misidentification during background checks and vigilantism $2 Million Match! Click Here to Double Your Impact! The company has said, “Our privacy policy prevents people from using our tool for this case.” This response is not so much a plan to prevent or mitigate the dangers as it is a declaration that the company views itself beyond accountability when harm does occur. Yet despite these problems being both obvious and previously seen in systems like FindFace, PimEyes dismisses concerns about these dangerous uses.

For instance, individuals seeking to remain hidden from former partners who threatened or engaged in domestic violence could easily be put at risk. It’s not hard to imagine how a technology that turns your smartphone into a personal encyclopedia about anyone you see in a bar or coffee shop could be abused.

This has already become a problem abroad with FindFace, an app created by a Russian company that works similarly to PimEyes. The first major risk from consumer-focused face recognition is how it could be weaponized by stalkers and for harassment. This is much like Clearview AI - a face recognition company with a problematic history of misrepresentations on how its tech works - that is considering expanding to public consumer use as well.Įxpanding use of face recognition and placing it in the hands of individuals everywhere presents several serious risks that policymakers need to grapple with before it becomes a widely accessible tool for abuse.

PimEyes operates by scraping images from across the internet (often in violation of sites’ terms of use meant to protect users). Recently an app called PimEyes has been garnering attention for its plans to offer consumer access to face recognition: Subscribers can run a photo of any individual they want through PimEyes’ systems, which will attempt to identify the person by returning every photo it can find online that might be a match.įace matches across the web - from blogs, online photo albums, YouTube, even pornographic websites - will be accessible to anyone for just $30 a month. It’s a powerful and dangerous surveillance tool, and in the last decade a huge number of law enforcement entities have begun using it.īut now we also need to pay attention to another emerging application of the technology that could have severe ramifications for the privacy and safety of private citizens: unrestricted personal use. Over the past few years we’ve focused our discussion of face recognition on government use, and with good reason. Subscribe to The Defender's Top News of the Day.

Aliensense facial recognition software