PimEyes is a face search engine. You upload a photo of a face, and it returns other photos of that face found on public websites, with links to the pages. PimEyes says it does not search social media, and anyone can run a search. You can ask PimEyes to hide your face for free, but the request needs a photo of you and a scan of an ID, and it does not remove the photos from the sites that host them. FaceCheck.ID and Clearview AI work on a similar idea with different rules about who can search and how to opt out.
What PimEyes finds, and what it skips
PimEyes compares the face in an uploaded photo with an index of images collected from public websites. On its pricing page, PimEyes says it indexes only sites that allow indexing and leaves out social media platforms and professional networks on purpose, so a photo that exists only on Instagram or LinkedIn should not show up. It also says it does not identify people, only matches visual patterns, and that uploaded search photos are kept for 48 hours at most. These are the company's own statements. No independent audit of them turned up in the research for this page.
A match is a link, not a name. The page behind the link often carries the name, which is how a stranger's photo can lead to an identity. Bellingcat's toolkit entry warns that a listed picture is not proof it shows the person you are looking for, and NPR reported in 2023 that some results show people with no connection to the search photo. Bellingcat also notes that the free version shows similar pictures without the websites they came from.
Who runs PimEyes
NPR says PimEyes was founded in 2017 by two programmers in Poland. Wikipedia, citing German reporting, says the brand was bought in 2020 by a company called Face Recognition Solutions Ltd, registered in Seychelles. In 2023 NPR named Giorgi Gobronidze, an academic based in Georgia, as CEO and said the company had a staff of about 12. The Harvard Crimson described the service in 2024 as based in Tbilisi, Georgia.
PimEyes' own About page names no owner, company or country. The current owner and legal home are therefore not confirmed here.
What PimEyes costs
Prices below were read from pimeyes.com/en/pricing on November 5, 2026, using the monthly view. The yearly prices were not captured.
| Plan | Per month | Searches per day | Takedown requests | Alerts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 10 | 0 | none listed |
| Open Plus | $29.99 | 75 | 0 | 10 |
| PROtect | $34.99 | 125 | 200 | 20 |
| Advanced | $299.99 | unlimited | 1,000 | 500 |
PimEyes states that it sells only through its own website, with no mobile apps or Telegram bots.
Is PimEyes safe or legal?
On uploading your own face, PimEyes says search photos are deleted within 48 hours and that the service is for personal, lawful use. For people who appear in its index, the criticism is long-running. NPR reported concerns about stalking, photos of children, and photos of dead people added without permission. PimEyes' stated rules say people should search only for themselves or for people who consent, and its CEO told NPR that "We don't identify people. We identify websites that identify images similar to the search material." NPR also noted that nothing technically stops someone from searching a stranger.
On legality, NPR reported in 2023 that the US had no federal law governing facial recognition, with state laws such as Illinois' biometric privacy law covering how private companies scan faces. In Germany, the Baden-Wuerttemberg data protection commissioner opened fine proceedings against PimEyes on December 21, 2022. The commissioner rejected PimEyes' argument that it acts in the public interest and said the opt-out process, which asks for more personal data to delete data, did not meet European privacy rules. The outcome of those proceedings was not found, and Ars Technica reported in 2023 that it could not tell whether they were still open.
On children, PimEyes CEO Giorgi Gobronidze told The New York Times in October 2023 that the company had added age-detection to block searches of minors. The New York Times report, as summarized by Ars Technica, says the system was still being refined, worked better for children under 14 than teenagers, and missed a childhood photo taken in profile.
FaceCheck.ID and other face search sites
FaceCheck.ID is the other name that draws heavy search traffic. Its home page describes it as a way to "find people online by photo," with result categories for social media, scammers, news and blogs, sex offender registries and mugshots. Unlike PimEyes, its category list includes social media. The site itself warns that many unrelated people look alike and that a face search should never be the only basis for a judgment about someone. Its home page does not name who operates it, and no operator was found in the sources reviewed.
An opt-out exists and is covered in the protection section below. Google Lens and TinEye are a different kind of tool: reverse image search. They look for copies of a picture you upload, which helps you find where one photo of you has been posted.
Clearview AI
Clearview AI sells face search too, but its FAQ says the product is not available to the public and goes only to vetted law enforcement and government agencies.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued under Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act. A settlement in May 2022 permanently bars Clearview from giving most private businesses and individuals access to its faceprint database anywhere in the US, and bars it from selling to Illinois state and local agencies or Illinois private entities for five years (ACLU of Illinois). The nationwide ban covers private buyers, not law enforcement outside Illinois (law-firm summary).
A separate class action ended with final approval on March 20, 2025. Instead of cash, class members received a 23% equity stake in the company, which the court opinion valued at about $51.75 million based on a January 2024 estimate. Reuters described it as a settlement with no immediate, specific payout.
Smart glasses and face search
In October 2024, two Harvard students showed what happens when these pieces connect. Their project, I-XRAY, streamed video from Ray-Ban Meta glasses to a phone, detected faces, and sent them to face search engines. When a name came back, software pulled phone numbers and home addresses from public databases, according to The Harvard Crimson. The students said they would not release the code and called it an awareness campaign. The step from a name to an address runs through people-search sites, covered in the guide to removing personal information.
Meta has its own history here. The New York Times reported on February 13, 2026 that Meta was considering a "Name Tag" feature that would identify people through its assistant, with a memo saying it would launch "during a dynamic political environment" (The Verge's summary). In June 2026, researchers found unreleased face recognition code in Meta's companion app, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation reported that an update on June 5 removed it. Meta did not say whether the feature would return. As of the sources reviewed, which run through August 2026, no facial recognition feature has been released on the glasses. Older background is in the post on Meta's face matching.
The glasses have a small indicator light when recording video, according to the EFF. The Financial Times reported in July 2026, as relayed by Ars Technica, that Meta executives were planning not to activate the light in a prototype "super sensing" mode, though sources said the plans could change.
Ars Technica reports that some schools, courts, restaurants and entertainment venues ban smart glasses, and that DEF CON 2026 banned them without exceptions.
In legal terms, a federal class action filed on March 4, 2026 against Meta and Luxottica of America alleges that glasses video was sent to a contractor in Kenya for labeling without clear disclosure, according to Fortune. The case had not been decided in the sources reviewed. License plate camera networks are a separate subject, covered in the post on Flock cameras.
When face photos are misused (deepfakes)
A face photo can be used for more than a search. Ars Technica reported in 2023 that The New York Times had warned PimEyes could be used to find photos of the same child to make realistic deepfake videos, meaning fake video or images that look real. That was a warning about a risk; no rate was measured. The remedies for victims are now concrete.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act requires covered platforms to offer a way to request removal of intimate images shared without consent, and to remove them and known identical copies within 48 hours of a valid request. The Federal Trade Commission began enforcing the platform requirement on May 19, 2026. The FTC's consumer alert says the law covers real images, edited images and AI-made deepfakes. Only platforms can remove the images. If a platform ignores a valid request or has no working process, a report can be filed at TakeItDown.ftc.gov. The same alert says sharing an intimate image of a minor, or of someone without consent, is a crime to report to local police and to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov.
Two free services work through hashes, digital fingerprints made on your own device so the image never leaves it. Take It Down, run by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, is for nude or sexually explicit images taken before age 18. StopNCII.org is for adults. Both pass the hash to participating platforms, and StopNCII states it cannot remove images from the whole internet.
Deepfake scams that use someone's face or voice to ask for money can be reported to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
How to protect your face online
Free options come first, and each reaches only one source.
1. Opt out of PimEyes
The official opt-out page is free, with no subscription needed. Per PimEyes' own instructions:
- Open the opt-out form.
- Upload a clear photo of your face.
- Upload a scan of a government-issued ID (ID card, passport or driver's license) with sensitive details hidden so that only your photo is visible. PimEyes says it does not store the ID image and deletes it after the process.
- Enter an email address so PimEyes can contact you.
PimEyes says this removes your likeness from current and future searches, and suggests repeating the request with other photos because images can have different index combinations. A second option is manual exclusion: pick an image in your search results, choose "exclude from public results," and give a reason. PimEyes says an approved image is deleted within 48 hours.
The trade-off is plain. The request asks for a photo and an ID scan, which the German regulator criticized and a Washington Post columnist who went through it in 2024 called handing documents to a company she did not trust. Whether that is worth it depends on how exposed the photos are. Removal also covers only PimEyes' index. The photos stay on the original sites.
2. Opt out of FaceCheck.ID
FaceCheck.ID runs a free removal page. Search for your own face, click "Remove My Photos," and select the images. It then asks for a selfie capture to confirm they are yours. If a selfie is not possible, an anonymized ID document can be uploaded instead. The site says matched photos are hidden immediately and, after a review of 1 to 5 business days, permanently deleted along with the document. It reserves the right not to remove photos of people convicted of violent crimes or sex offenses.
3. Opt out of Clearview AI
Clearview's privacy and requests page lists web forms by state, read on November 5, 2026: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Utah and Virginia. Residents can ask to delete or opt out of their information. For Illinois, Clearview says it blocks information it can associate with Illinois from future search results. Residents of other states are not listed.
4. Search for your own photos
Run your main profile pictures through Google Lens or TinEye and look for copies on sites you control, such as an old blog or club page. Copies on pages you control can be deleted or replaced directly.
5. Ask Google to remove contact details
Google's removal request form covers addresses, phone numbers, email, government ID numbers, images of a signature or ID, and doxxing content. It removes pages from Google Search only, not from the website hosting them. A page that shows your photo next to your phone number or address fits that category.
6. Check who can see your Facebook photos
Facebook's help center says an audience selector sets who sees each post or photo: Friends, Public or Only Me. One limit matters for face search. Facebook states that your current profile picture and cover photo are public to anyone, so a profile picture is a good place for a photo that is not your clearest headshot.
7. Paid options, last
PimEyes sells PROtect at $34.99 a month, with 200 takedown requests, and an optional Takedown Agent add-on at $12.99 a month. These send removal requests to the websites that host your photos, and PimEyes says the outcome depends on each site owner. In effect, PimEyes sells cleanup of results PimEyes itself shows, and the free opt-out does not require it. No data-removal service with published coverage of face search sites was found in the research for this page, so none is recommended here.
FAQ
Does PimEyes search Facebook or Instagram?
PimEyes says no. It states that it does not index social media platforms or professional networks. It can still return a photo of you on a news site, blog or school page.
Is PimEyes free?
Searching has a free tier of 10 searches a day as of November 5, 2026. Full results with source links need a paid plan starting at $29.99 a month, according to the pricing page. The opt-out is free for everyone.
Can someone identify me with Meta glasses?
Not with a feature Meta has released, as of the sources reviewed through August 2026. The Harvard I-XRAY demo showed that glasses, a face search site and people-search databases could be combined by two students. Meta reportedly considered its own identification feature and removed code related to it in June 2026.
Can I opt out of Clearview?
In 13 states listed on its page, yes, through forms for access, deletion or opt-out. Residents of other states are not listed.
Does opting out remove my photos from the internet?
No. An opt-out removes your face from one search index. The original pages stay online, and another service or a new photo can still turn up. Removing a photo from the site that hosts it, or asking Google to drop a page from search, deals with the source.
How AI Spy Tech checks and sources its articles is described in the editorial standards. Prices, forms and state lists on this page were read on November 5, 2026 and can change.
