{"id":133,"date":"2022-11-08T08:17:39","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T08:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/complaint-made-against-pimeyes-search-engine-for-faces\/"},"modified":"2022-11-08T08:17:39","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T08:17:39","slug":"complaint-made-against-pimeyes-search-engine-for-faces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/complaint-made-against-pimeyes-search-engine-for-faces\/","title":{"rendered":"Complaint made against PimEyes search engine for faces"},"content":{"rendered":"

Complaint made against PimEyes search engine for faces<\/p>\n

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\"An<\/picture><\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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By Chris Vallance<\/div>\n
Technology reporter<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch has made a complaint against face recognition search engine PimEyes.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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PimEyes enables people to look for faces in images which have been posted publicly on the internet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Big Brother Watch claims it facilitates stalking and has complained to the UK data and privacy watchdog.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But PimEyes’ chief executive Giorgi Gobronidze says it poses fewer risks related to stalking than social media or other search engines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Gobronidze told the BBC that because PimEyes only searches images posted publicly anyone misusing it “gets only the information available on the open internet”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Enabling surveillance<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Big Brother Watch’s complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) claims that PimEyes has enabled “surveillance and stalking on a scale previously unimaginable”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Screengrab<\/picture><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span>PimEyes<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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Starting with a person’s picture, PimEyes finds other photos of them published online. This could include images on photo-sharing sites, in blog posts and news articles, and on websites. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Big Brother Watch says that by piecing together information associated with these images – for example the text of a blog post, or a photo on a workplace website – a stalker could work out a person’s “place of work, or indications of the area in which they live”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Images of anyone, including children, can be scoured and tracked across the internet,” wrote Madeleine Stone, legal and policy officer at Big Brother Watch, as she announced the complaint.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She argued the tool could be secretly used by potential employers, university admissions officers, domestic abusers or stalkers, and said it threatened to “end anonymity as we know it”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The campaigners accuse PimEyes of unlawfully processing the biometric data of millions of UK citizens – arguing it does not obtain permission from those whose images are analysed. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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However, PimEyes told the BBC it was technically impossible to tell how many UK citizens’ faces it has analysed. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Gobronidze also responded to accusations his search engine broke data protection law. He claimed it was “technically impossible to reconstruct a single photo” from the data the company held, “even if we put our entire database on the open web”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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No surveillance<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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To make full use of PimEyes, users need to take out one of three types of paid subscription.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In its terms and conditions, the site says it is intended to allow people to search for publicly available information about themselves. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“PimEyes is not intended for the surveillance of others and is not designed for that purpose,” it says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But Big Brother Watch claims there are no safeguards against this. There has also been concern that the tool could be used to uncover the real identity of sex workers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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However Mr Gobronidze claims that PimEye’s “data security unit” looks for suspicious activity, for example if a male user always looks for female individuals, or a user uploads a photo of a child.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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And the site does allow people to opt out of their image appearing in results.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/picture><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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The company argues that there are positive uses of the tool, telling the BBC that it:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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