While Clearview AI has billions of images for people to search against, they are expensive and fussy (to a degree) about who they sell to.
On the other hand, PimEyes is free and available to anyone with a web browser.
As I said, a stalker’s dream. Here is how it works.
The stalker uploads a picture of the potential victim to PimEyes’ website and it coughs up all similar pictures it knows about.
For $300 a month – a whole lot less than what Clearview charges – you get an alert every time a new picture shows up of your target.
Only slightly less creepy – but likely still completely legal – a prospective employer uploads your photo and gets every picture of you on the web.
If you Google me you will find stuff going back to the 1990s. It probably stops there only because the web wasn’t popular in the 1980s and before.
For those people who had a traumatic event in their past that was covered online, this could bring it back to the present.
PimEyes tells users that they should only look for their own pictures, but, well, you know how well that works.
Even in those places that ban facial recognition software, that is usually only focused on what government agencies can do.
Unfortunately, this cat is out of the bag and I don’t think it will ever be bagged again. If not PimEyes, then someone else.
Credit: CNN, CNN Business and PimEyes
