PimEyes How much hasn't been said about this artificial intelligence tool? This website comes to cause us to ask ourselves the same question several times: «How much is our privacy worth?» Stay so you know everything interesting about this platform.
Launched in 2017, this platform is capable of tracking all the images of anyone on the network. There have been many opinions in this regard, and several allegations that the existence of said website constitutes a violation of the privacy of all people. Learn all about PimEyes here.
What is PimEyes and how is it different from the competition?
PimEyes is an artificial intelligence tool capable of uploading a photo of a face, and from this search for all images of the same person on the web.
You may think that this already exists before, with Google or Yandex, but there is a very important difference. Explained by the same representatives of PimEyes: the most common search engines, when making a search with an image, they do not search for the same thing.
But I am not going to get involved in explaining it to you, Jordi Pérez Colomé, editor of El País, did it very well in this article. Jordi's explanation consisted of a test, he put an image of your own in various search engines. Jordi's image consisted of a frontal photo, with a black shirt. Below we discuss the results.
On Google and on Yandex
I put them together because the results were very similar, just as disappointing. Photos appeared of other men, a little similar, all in the same position and with a similar shirt. These engines searched by pixels, without paying much attention to the face. In these engines the search was not for a similar person, it was for a similar image.
in clearview (company that is practically the same as Pimeyes, the difference is that the latter does not store the images found)
The website found 42 images, 41 were of Jordi, with photos from 15 years ago and videos from television. There was an image that did not match.
But that was Clearview, we don't have to stay with that experience. since we can find this article in the NY Times with first-hand experience from Kashmir Hill. According to this testimony, the experience with PimEyes was quite similar to that of Clearview, although better.
Using PimEyes, images of people's real identities were found, even when the photos provided to the website for the search were imperfect. imperfect in the sense that they were people with sunglasses, with a mask or with glasses (not all together). The results showed images of the people without the specified items. The website also showed prowess with a search for a person with a dark skin tone, something it supposedly finds difficult. The site was even able to identify people with photos from the side.
Why is it a threat to privacy?
PimEyes is not good or bad, it is a mere tool, a very powerful tool and it is available to anyone. PimEyes does not violate any system or take images from any prohibited site, it simply searches all your presence on the network in multimedia format, even the one you are not aware of, that can be enough in many cases to greatly affect your privacy.
At this point it is worth noting one of the main differences between Clearview and PimEyes, the first is the only one that includes results from social networks; the second, instead, in most cases pulls results from articles, wedding photography pages, blogs, review pages, and porn sites.
A fateful episode is related to Cher Scarlett
Cher had auditioned for a pornography when she was 19 years old, it was a sad period of her life, being broke and desperate. What a surprise to her when more than 15 years later, already established as a computer engineer, she decided to give PimEyes a try. Cher she remembered that ordeal, but even worse, she realized which was already in the public domain.
Scarlett was met with sad news, yes, she could exclude these images from the public results, but not without paying first. From $89,99 to $299,99 per month, the PROtection plans cost of the site, in this regard, Scarlett commented:
“It is, in essence, extortion”
Scarlett would pay for the more expensive version, and it would all end there, or not.
The main representative of the site at that time, indicated about the possibility of remove your images from public results for free. You also provided proof that you had repaid the PROtection plan payment.
Scarlett tried to use the free tool, shortly after receiving an email from the platform indicating that the process was successful. A month later, the Times would try the search again, finding over a hundred results for Cher Scarlett, including nudes of her. For de side of the company, excuses arrived, none convincing, that were trying to mask poor service.
What does PimEyes say about all this?
Several testimonials have been collected from people using this software. It's not much of a surprise to find out that they use it exactly the way you fear they will:
- To discover the identity of people who use Twitter anonymously (as long as they upload their own image)
- To find explicit photos of female acquaintances or neighbors
The latter is the type of user who would perhaps find images like those of Cher Scarlett. But what does PimEyes say about all this?
PimEyes presents itself as a way for people to become aware of your online presence. With the objective that anyone can know about any improper use of their image. In practice, nothing to do, the search for the "I" is done by testing the software, then there is much you can do.
The effort of those responsible for the platform to force users to use the website only for consensual searches is derisory. Before carrying out the search you have to click on a box to confirm that you are looking for yourself. You do not have to upload a document or anything that indicates that it is really you.
We hope we have been helpful and you have found out about the PimEyes controversies, please let us know your opinion in the comments, we are eager to hear it.