The well-known face search engine provokes public anger: just one photo will strip you of your pants in a few seconds

Yang Jing bright and quick From the Aofei temple
qubits | official account QbitAI

Just one face , You can retrieve photos from various public websites .

Even the black history of more than ten years ago can be found ！

lately , A group called PimEyes Face search engine , There was a huge controversy .

This site supports searching for anyone's photos , And the accuracy is amazing .

Even with a mask 、 sunglasses 、 His face is covered with hair , Human faces can also be recognized , Then pick out all kinds of similar face photos .

Among them , They may even be exposed to the public .

A software engineer Cher Scarlett（ Then call her sister Xue ） Shared an experience , I wanted to test whether I could find my relatives , As a result, I found a photo of myself being sexually abused more than ten years ago .

What's worse , To clear these photos , Or submit the application manually , Or subscribe to their services ——

Pay at least per month 79.9 dollar , To manage search results , Hide some photos you don't want to see .

The premise is to upload your own private information to verify your identity .

And a clean-up is not enough . Web site said , As long as the follow-up appears on different links , Will still be displayed .

in other words , Your black history , Anyone can open it and have a look , And spending money may not eliminate .

This matter is coming out. , Immediately caused an uproar .

Many netizens expressed that ： It reminds us how important regulation is in the field of science and technology .

Its business model , More and more like 2010 The retaliatory pornographic blackmailer model of the mid s ： Forcing unauthorized victims to pay to protect themselves to make money .

The black history can not be deleted

First of all, I will review the cause of the whole disturbance , According to the CNN reports , Sister Xue has had such an experience before , Have passed Facebook Face recognition search function , As a result, she found her distant relatives .

So someone shared this website with her PimEyes, She wants to study whether this website will also be like Facebook equally , Mistook her relatives' photos for hers .

But this time , Sister Xue didn't get the desired result , On the contrary, it has opened the long dust laden painful memories .

a sheet 19 Years old photos . She was being coerced , Took a series of humiliating and violent photos .

Also because of this experience , Sister Xue once wanted to commit suicide . So that the body's self-protection mechanism , Never let her remember again .

Just as she wanted to check the source of the picture , But the month pops up / Annual subscription service interface ——

You need to pay at least 29.9 dollar , You can view the source of the picture .

After payment , Sister Xue found that the old photo was on a pornographic website .

And search for this old photo to find , As a result, dozens of more explicit photos were obtained , Many of them are scattered on various pornographic websites , There is even a special “ abuse ”、“ asphyxia ”、“ torture ” Other keywords .

And then , She has been trying to delete these photos , Even bought PimEyes The most expensive service , To no avail .

At first she was not the owner of these copyrights , And is ignored by the website . Then even if the official exit mechanism is adopted —— Upload a clear face image , And use your ID card / The passport photo is applied for deletion with verified identity , And I haven't got any information yet .

Until this year 4 month , Sister Xue shared her experiences on the social network ,PimEyes Just approved her deletion request .

This matter is coming out. , Many netizens have also tried this website , But the painting styles are different .

Besides showing fear of privacy violations , Some have picked up photos they have never seen ：incredible！

Some people are a little depressed , Because only two photos were found .

PimEyes Respond ： We provide free offline photo function

Speaking of PimEyes, In fact, it already has 5 Year of “ history ” 了 .

According to the current website owner , Its main function is to help ordinary people , To retrieve whether your photos on the Internet have been used unreasonably .

For example, the photos taken in the photo studio are directly used to publicize such cases .

The announcement on the website indicates that , Although they have the largest photo database in Europe , But it doesn't store any photos .

The main search method is to extract the facial features from the portrait , Save the corresponding data .

And the links displayed in the search results are all public websites , It doesn't point to individuals .

Generally speaking , Ordinary search can be used for free .

If you want to experience more functions , You need to pay .

The price of monthly membership has a monthly 29.99 dollar /79.99 dollar /299.99 dollar .

The higher the price is. , The more permissions you can retrieve .

PimEyes It has been repeatedly emphasized on the official website , I don't know any personal privacy .

But they also show , There is no way to restrict users to only search for their own photos on the website , Because they do not authenticate every user .

If suspicious account activity is found in the background , They also deactivate the corresponding account .

“ However, it is impossible for us to check what the account is retrieving , We can only know how many times they search every day .”

Take it a step further ,PimEyes It also provides a service for users to offline their personal photos .

That's the front Cher Scarlett Tried things .

The official statement said , This service is not as simple as users think .

Upload your photos anonymously 、 After personal identification and other information are verified , The website will search by the hash value of the portrait , Then delete the link addresses with high similarity .

But because of AI Uncertainty and complexity , One request may not find all matching photos , They suggest using photos many times to perform offline operations .

And they can't guarantee the deleted image , Will it appear on the new website .

As long as a new link contains this portrait , The relevant content can still be found through further search .

PimEyes Suggest users , You can clean up your photos from time to time ……

besides , They are also using more comprehensive features to avoid this problem , For example, mirror image URL The identification of 、 Improve AI Ability 、 Enhanced shielding, etc .

But they said ：

This process requires performing multiple complex technical tasks and tests , Therefore, it will take some time for the function to be fully realized .

It is worth mentioning that ,PimEyes Indicates the function of offline photos , There is no need to pay Can use .

Website owner Giorgi Gobronidze In an interview with 《 The New York times 》 In an interview with , Before Cher Scarlett Paid for offline photos 299 USD membership fee , It has also gone back the same way .

The payment page of the official website shows , If paid monthly 79.99 dollar , They can also provide an agent service to submit photo offline applications , Up to... Can be sent 80 Applications for .

Maybe it's because not many people have paid attention to this free feature before , This matter is coming out. PimEyes I also wrote a blog , It explains in detail how to use the offline function .

An endless stream of face search engines

What needs to be noticed is ,PimEyes It's not an example .

In recent years, many personal face search engines have appeared on the Internet .

This has also led to government departments 、 The society pays great attention to the application of face recognition .

A few years down , These applications or websites that provide face retrieval have different destinies , Some were by the government “ Amnesty ” Only provide industry services 、 Some are still controversial 、 Some have been announced offline ……

below , Let's make a brief offer , How are these face retrieval applications now ？

First of all, let's look at Russia FindFace.

It's in 2016 Put on the shelves in , The function is to upload face photos , With Russia's largest social networking site VK Compare a large number of photos in , Then provide the best match result .

The algorithm behind it even participated in the face recognition competition MegaFace, In the face of 100 Ten thousand people face search , It finally achieved 73.3% Accuracy scores .

Its founder said in an interview , The main purpose of developing this website is to help people improve their social life .

If you see someone you like , You can take pictures , Then find their social accounts .

meanwhile , The website is also used by the police to identify criminals , It may also pave the way for the transformation behind it .

2018 year ,FindFace Indicates that the service of retrieving social data is no longer available , Instead, it provides services to industries such as security .

As report goes , In Russia 2018 During the world cup ,FindFace Security applications in multiple cities , Helped detain hundreds of criminals .

But not all face search engines , Finally, they all choose to be “ Amnesty ”.

Some time ago , Another human face search application Clearview AI It has made a lot of publicity .

and FindFace Some similar , Its search scope also focuses on social platforms , Include Facebook、Twitter etc. .

As report goes ,Clearview AI We've collected 100 Million photos .

2020 year , American civil society organizations ACLU In violation of the act of the company 《 Illinois biometric information privacy act 》 Institute proceedings , To protect victims of domestic violence 、 The privacy rights and interests of undocumented immigrants, sex workers and other vulnerable groups .

In this year 5 month 10 Japan , The result of this lawsuit is published ,Clearview AI Will no longer provide services to most private enterprises or individuals in the United States .

meanwhile ,Clearview AI He was recently ordered to delete the facial information data of British residents , And be ICO Drive out 750 A huge fine of million pounds .

before ,Facebook A similar face retrieval function has been provided on .

It allows users to find themselves in photos posted by friends 、 Mark yourself , Mainly to generate more interaction , Increase user stickiness .

But this function has also experienced for 6 Legal proceedings in , And finally to compensate 6.5 Billion dollars .

last year , stay Facebook Change of name Meta when , Officially offline .

And in the domestic , There have been similar cases .

2019 year , A name is “ Forgive me ” The application of has caused great controversy .

A programmer said , I have developed a system that can identify “ Cinderella ” The program , It supports the function of uploading women's photos and comparing them with the portraits in yellow websites .

At that time, many media attacked the incident , Express “ Forgive me ” It is the typical opposite of science and technology to the good .

It ended up with this app going offline .

obviously , How to reasonably apply face recognition , It is still a problem worth discussing in depth .

Regarding this , What do you think ？

Reference link ：
[1]https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/24/tech/cher-scarlett-facial-recognition-trauma/
[2]https://pimeyes.com/en/blog/more-about-pimeyes-database-and-opt-out-service