DoNotPay unveils tool to shield photos from facial recognition

The DoNotPay startup, which builds chatbots to provide legal services, has created a tool called Photo Ninja to protect photographs from reverse-image searches on the internet. The Verge reports.

Photo Ninja adds a layer of barely noticeable alterations to a user\’s photo that fundamentally distort how facial-recognition algorithms perceive the image.

According to DoNotPay\’s chief executive Joshua Browder, a photo protected by the tool yields zero results when searched by image on Google or TinEye.

Photo Ninja also can fool facial-recognition technology from Microsoft and Amazon with a 99% probability.

According to the developers, users will be able to safely post processed photos on social networks and dating sites without fear that this image will be linked to other information about them on the internet.

However Browder emphasised that Photo Ninja cannot bypass all existing facial-recognition systems. For example, the company does not guarantee that the tool will fool Clearview AI, which has already built a huge database of images from social networks.

Photo Ninja is available to all DoNotPay subscribers. Subscriptions cost $36 a year.

Earlier, a US senator proposed to ban the use of Clearview AI without a court order.

In April 2021, a group of 70 American civil-rights organisations urged Biden to stop using Clearview AI.

In March, activists filed a lawsuit in California seeking to ban the company’s activities in the state.

In January, Amnesty International called for stopping the use of facial recognition in public places. The organisation argues that biometric identification by street-surveillance cameras is a gross intrusion into people’s privacy.

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