Flickr Images Used for Megaface Facial Recognition

According to Flickr users, the photo sharing company may have shared their photos with a facial recognition database without first obtaining their consent or even informing them.

Flickr Users Shocked to Find Their Faces in MegaFace Facial Recognition Database

Flickr user Dominique P. says she uploaded multiple photos of her two young children to Flickr in 2005. Dominique didn’t think much about these photos or the website until recently, when she discovered that the photos of her children had been shared with a facial recognition database called MegaFace.

According to Dominique’s daughter, finding her own face in a facial recognition database was alarming. “It’s gross and uncomfortable,” she told the New York Times. “I think artificial intelligence is cool and I want it to be smarter, but generally you ask people to participate in research.”

The MegaFace facial recognition program contains the faces and likenesses of nearly 700,000 people. The program has been downloaded and used by dozens of companies, including Google, Amazon, Mitsubishi Electric, SenseTime, and Tencent.

Background on MegaFace and Facial Recognition Programs

MegaFace was released by Yahoo in 2014 as a way to even the playing field of facial recognition software. Ayman Shamma, the Director of Research at that time, told the New York Times that Yahoo “wanted to empower the research community by giving them a robust database.” Facial recognition programs could be used to track protestors, identify and surveil criminals, watch problem gamblers, protect stores from shoplifters, and spy on the general public.

The MegaFace facial recognition collection is intended to be used as a training tool for facial identification algorithms. While previous methods of collecting faces for facial recognition training included asking volunteers to be photographed from multiple angles, or using surreptitious surveillance methods at college campuses and other public spaces, those photos were often low quality. By using photos that people had uploaded themselves, researchers were able to collect a wider variety of high quality images.

As many Flickr users like to upload and share photos of their children, there are many children’s faces included in the database. As facial recognition systems tend to be bad at identifying children’s faces, using Flickr photos was seen as an easy way to train these programs to be better at recognizing young people’s features.

Although Flickr users whose photos were uploaded to the MegaFace facial recognition collection were not notified, Ayman claims that he believed the way the photos were distributed protected users’ privacy. Instead of distributing the actual images, links to the photos were collected. This meant that if a user deleted their photos or changed their photo settings to private, the link should no longer work and the photo would not be accessible through MegaFace.

However, due to security a flaw at the time, even private photos were able to be accessed through a direct link. Additionally, some companies and researchers who used the database simply downloading the images, rather than using the links to access them. As the data included in MegaFace was not anonymized, it is possible to trace these photos back to the user who uploaded them. According to the New York Times, each photo in the collection includes a numerical identifier linking the photo back to the original user.

Consumer Facial Recognition Rights

While consumers in most states do not have extensive rights regarding facial recognition, Illinois residents are protected by a state law known as the Biometric Information Privacy Act. Under this act, Illinoisans are protected from having their fingerprints or facial scans used or distributed by private entities without their consent. Illinois residents who have had their privacy rights violated may be able to sue for between $1,000 and $5,000 per violation.

As many as 13,000 Illinois residents may have their photos included in the MegaFace facial recognition collection.

Join a Free Flickr Facial Recognition Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you had a Flickr account and you uploaded pictures onto that account, those images may have been given to MegaFace and used for facial recognition purposes without your permission, and you may qualify to join this Flickr facial recognition class action lawsuit investigation.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.