Let’s be real - we’ve all been to high school parties, where some questionable things may have taken place. Most times, pictures were also taken there to constantly remind you of what took place and make you embarrassed. Well, have you ever thought about how those pictures might still be circulating around the web? That’s truly a horrifying thought, but don’t fret - if your photos indeed are posted somewhere online, finding them is possible! Face recognition search engines, such as PimEyes, are exactly the thing you need. We often receive information from our clients who found some questionable pictures (that do not necessarily paint them in a bad light), from their younger days, which they don’t wish to have publicly available for everyone to see. By using our services, they have successfully removed them from the web.
What is a face recognition search engine and how does it work?
The way PimEyes works is that it crawls the public Internet, finds photos of faces and then creates “face fingerprints” by indexing their parameters. Unlike regular reverse image search engines, such as Google Images, it only focuses on the face/faces in a picture, which is why it is more effective when it comes to finding photos of people and the results presented are more accurate. Even if multiple people are depicted in a photo, PimEyes will recognize that they are all different entities.
You have to be aware that PimEyes doesn’t search social media, since those kinds of platforms don’t allow for their data to be crawled. However, there are big chances that photos which have been posted on publicly available websites, will be found by PimEyes.
So, how can I perform a face reverse image search?
Using PimEyes is quite easy - choose the photo you wish to perform a search with (you can read about which pictures are best suited for this on our blog) and upload it to our search engine. After performing a search, we will estimate the number of websites that potentially use your photos. If you would like to access these websites, become a subscriber.
I have found my photos, so what now?
If the photos have been posted without your permission, then you can reach out to the webmaster of the website they are on and ask for them to be taken down. By subscribing to our PROtect plan, you have access to 4 hours/month of professional services, during which our agent drafts and sends DMCA and GDPR requests on your behalf. You also have direct contact with your agent, so you can always be up to date regarding your cases!
If you, however, do not find your photos immediately or if you don't consider found ones as infringing your rights, you can receive notifications whenever a new photo of you is found via the PimEyes’ Alerts service. By setting up Alert, you can easily monitor your online presence by receiving notifications anytime new pictures of you are found.
Summary
Protecting your privacy is very important, which is why you should always be aware if any of your photos (old or new) are circulating around the web. By subscribing to PimEyes, you can easily track your online presence and receive help with removing any unwanted content.