The face search engine that anyone can use is alarmingly accurate

But PimEyes does little to enforce this goal other than the box the searcher has to click on, stating that the person being uploaded is his or her own. Helen Nissenbaum, a professor at Cornell University who studies privacy, called it “absurd” unless there was a site seeker to provide government identification, as Ms. Scarlett had to do when she resigned.

“If it is useful to do something to see where our own people are, we need to imagine that a company offering only this service will be transparent and audited,” Ms. Nissenbaum said.

PimEyes does not conduct such audits, although Mr Gobronidze said the site would ban a user with search activity “beyond all logic”, citing as an example one with more than 1,000 searches a day. He relies on consumers to do what is right and mentioned that anyone looking for someone else’s face without permission will violate European privacy law.

“It must be the responsibility of the person who uses it,” he said. “We’re just a tool supplier.”

Ms. Scarlett said she never thought she would speak publicly about what happened to her when she was 19, but she felt she had to do so when she realized the images were there.

“That would be used against me,” she said. “I’m glad to be the person who found them, but for me it’s more luck than PimEyes to work as intended. It should not exist at all. “

Exceptions to the rule

Although he says PimEyes should only be used for stand-alone search, Mr Gobronidze is open to other uses, as long as they are “ethical”. He said he endorsed investigative journalists and the role of PimEyes in identifying Americans who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The Times allows its journalists to use search engines to identify people for reports, but there are internal rules of practice. “Any request to use a face recognition tool for reporting purposes requires prior review and approval by a senior member of the principal element and our legal department to ensure that the use complies with our standards and applicable law,” a spokesman said. of the Times Daniel Rhodes Ha.