Facial Recognition Tool Pimeyes Faces Lawsuit for Privacy Violations

The Lawsuit Against Pimeyes

Five residents of Illinois have filed a lawsuit against facial recognition website Pimeyes.com, alleging violations of their privacy rights. The plaintiffs claim that Pimeyes included their photos in search results without their consent, thereby violating the state's privacy law. Pimeyes, along with its executives and a lesser-known company created by its founders in 2020, are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Privacy Violations and the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA)

The lawsuit accuses Pimeyes of intentionally or recklessly violating the privacy of the plaintiffs. It also demands that Pimeyes change its practices to comply with Illinois's Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Enacted in 2008, this law makes it illegal for companies to collect or store data, including facial data of Illinois residents, without their consent.

According to the complaint filed in the Madison County Third Judicial Circuit Court, the inclusion of the residents' photos and information in Pimeyes' search results caused them "great and irreparable injury." While the complaint does not provide specific details of harm suffered, it highlights the potential risks associated with unauthorized people viewing and using personal photos and information.

Pimeyes: A Digital Hygiene Tool Turned Stalking Weapon

Pimeyes operates as a search engine that uses a provided picture to locate other pictures of the same person online. While it can be used as a digital hygiene tool for personal use, it has also been misused by individuals to stalk and unmask the identities of strangers and porn actors. Additionally, it has been used to surface compromising images of targeted individuals.

One critic of the company, Cher Scarlett, tested Pimeyes on herself and discovered images from a past pornography audition, which she soon regretted. In response to concerns, Pimeyes began blocking images of children in search results to prevent potential misuse.

Lawsuits and Settlements Under BIPA

Pimeyes is not the first tech company to face legal action under BIPA. Meta (formerly known as Facebook) settled a class action BIPA lawsuit in 2020, paying $650 million to resolve allegations that its automatic face-tagging system, powered by facial recognition, violated the law. Clearview AI, a facial recognition company that created a database from scraped photos, also settled a BIPA lawsuit in 2022. Although it avoided substantial fines, Clearview AI agreed to remove Illinois residents from its database and imposed restrictions on database usage by businesses and private actors.

Defendants in the Lawsuit

The Pimeyes lawsuit names the company, its Polish cofounders Lucasz Kowalczyk and Denis Tatina, and its current CEO Giorgi Gobronidze as defendants. It also includes EMEARobotics and Carribex LTD, companies registered by Gobronidze in Dubai and Belize during the acquisition of Pimeyes in 2021.

The lawsuit also mentions "Public Mirror," a company seemingly founded by Kowalczyk and Tatina in 2020, shortly before they sold Pimeyes. Public Mirror, advertised as the "next generation of media monitoring," offered similar features to Pimeyes but allowed users to receive email notifications about new appearances of their faces on the internet. The company dissolved in May 2023 without public information about the cause.

Kowalczyk and Tatina subsequently founded Expertum LTD, which sells a facial recognition algorithm without a facial recognition database. Several former employees of Public Mirror have apparently joined Expertum LTD, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

The Lawsuit Progress and Company Responses

The Pimeyes lawsuit had a hearing on Wednesday, but the company has not been officially served yet. The hearing focused on the attempts to serve legal papers to Pimeyes-related entities worldwide, which must be done in the respective countries and languages.

Kowalczyk, Tatina, and Gobronidze did not respond to requests for comment. Gobronidze stated in an email that he had no prior knowledge of the lawsuit and would refrain from making official comments until receiving official information.

BIPA and Pimeyes' Data Collection

The complaint argues that Pimeyes violated BIPA by collecting and storing Illinois residents' information without obtaining their permission. Although Pimeyes claims that its database only contains "faceprints" rather than photos, BIPA protects both facial photos and facial geometry data derived from pictures.

Brandon Wise, the lead attorney on the case, believes that Pimeyes clearly violated BIPA. He also highlights the additional risk posed by a foreign company like Pimeyes, which is headquartered in Georgia and not based in the United States.

In conclusion, the lawsuit against Pimeyes underscores the importance of protecting individuals' privacy rights and the potential legal consequences for companies that fail to comply with privacy laws, such as BIPA.—————————————————————————————————————————————
By: chaskins@insider.com (Caroline Haskins)
Title: Facial Recognition Tool Pimeyes Faces Lawsuit for Privacy Violations
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/facial-recognition-company-pimeyes-sued-under-illinois-privacy-law-2023-12
Published Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2023 19:40:20 +0000