PimEyes facial recognition search engine

PimEyes is a tool that enables users to upload and search for matching images on the web. It uses facial recognition technology to create geometric  'faceprints' of images submitted and found online.

Created in 2017 by Polish software developers Łukasz Kowalczyk and Denis Tatina, PimEyes was commercialised in 2020 and purchased in 2021 by Georgian academic Giorgi Gobronidze. 

The tool started life as a way for stalkers and others to pry into the lives of celebrities, before pivoting to become a product marketed as a way for people to protect themselves against 'scammers, identity thieves, or people who use your image illegally'.

Risks and harms

PimEyes has been dogged by controversy since its launch:

Governance

A number of aspects of how PimEyes is run have been pushed into the public spotlight. 

PimEyes users are only meant to search for images of themselves or of people who have consented to the use of their images to be searched. But the company's decision to make its system available to consumers with few technical guardrails limiting its use is seen to have made it easy to misuse.

In addition, its PROtect monthly plan, which costs between USD 89.99 and 299.99 a month and is meant to hide your images from PimEyes' search results, have been described as 'extortion'. Others complain that their images shortly re-appear and that the plan does not work.

Data scraping

• PimEyes was found to be including photos on its system scraped from major social media platforms, including YouTube and TikTok

• Software engineer and writer Cher Scarlett discovered PimEyes had been using stolen photos of dead people to train its algorithms

Privacy loss

PimEyes may market itself as a way to protect privacy, but it has also been seen as a privacy threat. 

• A Germany data privacy watchdog opened proceedings against PimEyes for privacy abuse

• Five plaintiffs sued PimEyes in Illinois, USA, for privacy violations

• Cher Scarlett found she was unable to have non-consensual, explicit photographs of her removed from PimEyes

• A film fan used PimEyes to identify anonymous porn stars

• The New York Times reported that PimEyes was able to identify people wearing sunglasses, hats, and face masks

Surveillance, stalking

Criticism has been levelled at PimEyes for the ease with which it can be used for various forms of unethical and illegal surveillance, harassment and abuse, including stalking, revenge porn, and fraud.

• UK civil liberties group Big Brother Watch filed a legal complaint accusing PimEyes of 'surveillance and stalking on a scale previously unimaginable'

• PimEyes was accused of making it 'disturbingly easy' for users to find 'potentially explicit' photographs of children

Transparency

PimEyes is seen to have been reluctant to discuss its governance, including naming its directors and investors, how it obtains and processes data, and the types of organisations it works with and what they do with the data it supplies. 

The company has not revealed how its algorithms work.

Research, advocacy

• Chan G. (2021). Towards a calibrated trust-based approach to the use of facial recognition technology