PimEyes is one of the most powerful facial recognition search engines on the internet, allowing anyone to upload a photo and instantly find where that face appears online. If you value your privacy, you should know that your face is likely already in their database — and here's exactly how to get it removed.
What Is PimEyes?
PimEyes is a publicly available reverse face search engine that crawls the internet and indexes photos containing human faces. Unlike Clearview AI, which primarily serves law enforcement, PimEyes is available to anyone willing to pay for a subscription. Users can upload a photo of any face and receive links to websites where that face appears — including social media profiles, news articles, blog posts, and even obscure corners of the web you may have forgotten about.
The service works by creating a biometric faceprint from each indexed photo and comparing it against uploaded search queries. This means PimEyes doesn't just store your photos — it stores a mathematical representation of your facial features.
Why You Should Opt Out of PimEyes
The risks of having your face searchable on PimEyes are significant:
- Stalking and harassment — anyone can upload a photo taken in public to find your online presence and identity
- Doxxing — bad actors can connect your face to your real name, workplace, and social media accounts
- Identity theft — your photos can be used to impersonate you or bypass identity verification systems
- Loss of anonymity — even if you use pseudonyms online, PimEyes can link your anonymous profiles to your real identity through shared photos
Your Face Is Already in the Database
PimEyes continuously scrapes publicly available images from across the internet. Even photos you posted briefly and then deleted may have already been captured and indexed. You don't need to have signed up for PimEyes or consented to anything — the scraping happens automatically.
How to Opt Out of PimEyes: Step-by-Step
Step 1: Check If Your Face Is in PimEyes
Before submitting an opt-out request, confirm that PimEyes has indexed your face. Go to pimeyes.com and use their free search feature to upload a clear photo of yourself. If results appear showing your face on various websites, your biometric data is in their system and you should proceed with the opt-out process.
Step 2: Visit the Opt-Out Request Form
Navigate to the official opt-out page at pimeyes.com/en/opt-out-request-form. This is the only legitimate way to request removal of your biometric data from PimEyes' database.
Step 3: Upload a Clear Photo of Your Face
You'll need to upload a high-quality photo of your face. For the best results:
- Use a well-lit, full-face photo with nothing covering your face or eyes
- Avoid sunglasses, masks, or heavy makeup that could alter your appearance
- Consider uploading multiple photos showing different angles of your face — this helps PimEyes match and remove more results
Step 4: Upload an Anonymized ID Document
PimEyes requires an anonymized scan of a government-issued ID (passport, driver's license, or national ID card) to verify that you are the person in the photos. Before uploading:
- Blur or cover your name
- Blur or cover your address
- Blur or cover your ID number and any barcodes
- Only your photo on the ID needs to be visible
PimEyes states that they do not store images of ID documents and that they are used solely for verification purposes.
Step 5: Provide Your Email Address
Enter a valid email address where PimEyes can send updates about your opt-out request. You'll receive confirmation when the process is complete.
Step 6: Submit and Wait
After submitting the form, PimEyes support will verify that the face on your ID matches the uploaded photo. They then run a search using your photo, and every result with a high similarity score is added to a blocklist. Those results are removed from their search index. This process typically takes a few business days.
Submit Multiple Requests for Best Results
Because facial recognition is not perfectly deterministic, a single opt-out request may not catch every indexed image of you. PimEyes themselves recommend submitting multiple opt-out requests using different photos of your face to maximize the number of matches that get blocked. Try photos from different angles, lighting conditions, and time periods.
What Happens After You Opt Out?
Once your opt-out request is processed, your face will no longer appear in PimEyes search results. The matched URLs and image hashes are placed on a permanent blocklist, which means both current and future searches by anyone should no longer return your face.
However, there are important limitations to understand:
- Original images remain online — PimEyes only removes results from their own search index. The actual photos still exist on the websites where they were originally posted.
- New photos may be indexed — if new images of your face are posted to the internet after your opt-out, they may be scraped and indexed again. You may need to submit additional opt-out requests periodically.
- Not all matches may be caught — as mentioned above, different photos produce different index combinations, so some images of you may slip through a single request.
How Long Does the Opt-Out Take?
PimEyes retains uploaded data for no more than 96 hours while processing the request. After the opt-out is carried out, your personal data — including the photo and any biometric data derived from it — is permanently removed from their system. Most users report the process completing within a few business days.
Additional Steps to Protect Your Facial Privacy
Opting out of PimEyes is an important step, but it's just one part of protecting your biometric privacy:
- Opt out of other facial recognition services — services like Clearview AI and FaceCheck.ID also maintain facial recognition databases. Submit removal requests to each one separately.
- Reduce your online photo footprint — set social media profiles to private, remove tagged photos, and ask friends and family not to post identifiable photos of you publicly.
- Reverse image search yourself — use Google Images to find where your photos appear online and request removal from those sites directly.
- Remove your data from people-search sites — data brokers like Spokeo, BeenVerified, and Radaris often display profile photos alongside your personal information, making it easier for facial recognition systems to match and identify you.
How PrivacyOn Can Help
While PimEyes requires a direct opt-out request that you need to handle yourself, much of the data that makes facial recognition dangerous comes from data broker and people-search sites that link your photos to your real name, address, and other personal details. Services like PrivacyOn automate the removal of your personal information from over 100 of these data broker sites, reducing the data points that facial recognition systems can use to build a profile on you.
With continuous monitoring and automatic re-removal when your data reappears, PrivacyOn provides an ongoing layer of protection that complements your direct opt-out efforts with facial recognition companies like PimEyes.