{"id":11916,"date":"2016-04-22T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T13:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?p=11916"},"modified":"2017-09-24T08:06:38","modified_gmt":"2017-09-24T12:06:38","slug":"findface-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/findface-experiment\/11916\/","title":{"rendered":"You can&#8217;t replace your face, says face recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Unless you are from Russia, you probably haven\u2019t heard of a <a href=\"http:\/\/findface.ru\/login\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">service<\/a>, that analyzes an image of a person and finds their account in <a href=\"http:\/\/VK.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">VK.com<\/a> social network. It\u2019s called FindFace. It was introduced in February 2016, but has recently become quite popular; thanks to the impressive <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/technology\/2016\/04\/13\/revealed-how-facial-recognition-can-open-up-your-life-to-strange\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">photo project<\/a>, published by the St.Petersburg photographer Egor Tsvetkov. We\u2019ve recently mentioned this project in a blog post.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2016\/04\/06022413\/findface_experiment-FB.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11917\" src=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2016\/04\/06022413\/findface_experiment-FB.jpg\" alt=\"You can't replace your face, says face recognition\" width=\"1280\" height=\"1280\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Kaspersky Daily editorial team decided to check out the service to see how it works and what types of portraits it recognizes and what it does not. We wanted to know if it\u2019s possible to find out a detailed biography of a complete stranger with the help of one accidental photo, the Internet and some modern technology.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">How <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/bigdata?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">#bigdata<\/a> turned you and me into a commodity. Try not to feel <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/dirty?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">#dirty<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8yIXgsm9IY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/8yIXgsm9IY<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/p7khV4F95M\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/p7khV4F95M<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kaspersky (@kaspersky) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kaspersky\/status\/723579186087079936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">April 22, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The conclusions are alarming: it\u2019s <em>actually possible<\/em>. During the research we also made several interesting discoveries; for example, one of our colleagues suddenly found out that his digital identity was stolen.<\/p>\n<h3>So what\u2019s FindFace and how does it work?<\/h3>\n<p>FindFace is a service that can search for VK.com accounts on the base of a portrait photo of a person. 30 search attempts are free, then you\u2019ll have to pay.<\/p>\n<p>The service has mobile apps for iOS and Android , complimented by a website version. Applications come with limited functionality and several flaws in work, but they have one valuable advantage: users can take a photo and immediately use it to search with FindFace.<\/p>\n<p>The app shows profile photos of the potential matches. You can click on each photo to look through all public images on the user\u2019s account. Just look at Egor Tsvetkov\u2019s work in the \u2018Your Face is Big Data\u2019 project to see how easy it is to find a complete stranger.<\/p>\n<p>The Web service is more convenient as it lets you immediately jump to your target\u2019s VK.com account. To search for a person using the website you\u2019ll have to perform several additional steps like copying photos to your hard drive first and then uploading them to the FindFace.ru.<\/p>\n<p>If you upload \u201cideal\u201d photos, that were taken when your target was posing, everything works just great. The program has successfully found 9 of 10 test \u201cvictims\u201d in the office.<\/p>\n<p>If you take photos of strangers on the streets or in the subway sneakily, accuracy decreases two or even three times. And if you upload images taken from a long distance, the service often becomes unable to find a human in the photo. Still, if you zoom or crop the image, FindFace will work again.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">How easy is it for hackers to steal your face? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SGtYtE1y63\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/SGtYtE1y63<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/digitalidentity?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">#digitalidentity<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Cz85TxEkYt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/Cz85TxEkYt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kaspersky (@kaspersky) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kaspersky\/status\/659376382410125312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">October 28, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In the daylight it\u2019s not hard to take a photo of a pedestrian with an average smartphone that would be good enough for Findface. In the subway you\u2019ll need to use tripod or a good camera.<\/p>\n<h3>What did we find out<\/h3>\n<p>If you don\u2019t want to be detected literally by any stranger with a phone, there are several things that you can do.<\/p>\n<p>1. The service searches photos uploaded to your VK.com <i>profile<\/i>, not the whole account. This includes your current profile picture and all the previous ones. The social network keeps these photos in the \u2018My profile photos\u2019 album. It\u2019s noteworthy that you can\u2019t hide this album \u2014 it always stays public. The only thing you can do is to delete old profile images: the less photos you have in that album, the harder it is for the app to recognize you.<\/p>\n<p><b>Tip:<\/b> delete old photos. Store only the latest picture in this album to save yourself from face recognition tyranny.<\/p>\n<p>2. It\u2019s possible to hinder facial recognition by wearing hoodies or turning your head away from the camera or at an unusual angle. Making funny faces is also an option, with some exceptions. Eyeglasses with solid rings work just perfect, unless you have a photo with the same eyeglasses in your profile (or with the same funny face).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tips and Tricks to Hide from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BigBrother?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">#BigBrother<\/a> Watchful Eye <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xJ6VqqUKuo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/xJ6VqqUKuo<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/oeNopI12hL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/oeNopI12hL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kaspersky (@kaspersky) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kaspersky\/status\/652500369264783360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">October 9, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>3. Many volunteers, who took part in the experiment, did not know that they had so many public photos. Yes, they\u2019ve checked privacy options in \u2018Settings\u2019 but it was not enough as VK lets you limit access to albums only (and then only not all of them), not certain photos in particular.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11924\" src=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2016\/04\/06022407\/sjkljkl.jpg\" alt=\"findface test\" width=\"1280\" height=\"840\"><\/p>\n<p><b>Tip:<\/b> ask anybody you know and trust to unfriend you (and befriend again after the test), explore your account and check what\u2019s visible and what\u2019s not. Then move photos from public albums to private if required.<\/p>\n<p>4. FindFace works absolutely legally: it doesn\u2019t cache data to show any information, hidden by the social media settings. When we removed all photos from VK.com, the service became unable to find us during the second search. Still it\u2019s very possible that in future a new service could appear, which would behave more badly: for example, it could <i>store<\/i> the data from other popular social networks like Facebook or Instagram. So it\u2019s better to check twice the security settings for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/facebook-privacy-settings-video\/4623\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">other<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/keep-instagram-secure\/11045\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">social media<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/twitter-security\/11860\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">accounts<\/a> beforehand.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Setting up your <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/IQCYudiOoZ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/IQCYudiOoZ<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/privacy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">#privacy<\/a> settings <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jWyNOz0yLt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/jWyNOz0yLt<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/global?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">#global<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/socme?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">#socme<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/m6P4nKRMhF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/m6P4nKRMhF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kaspersky (@kaspersky) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kaspersky\/status\/685133623129960448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">January 7, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>5. FindFace describes itself as a dating service. For example, you see an attractive person, take a photo and browse through their account \u2014 ok, now you\u2019ve to a topic to make a pass. In fact, this service can let you make a lot of more useful \u2014 and strange \u2014 things.<\/p>\n<p>Just remember <a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Lifestyle\/homeowner-surveillance-thwart-burglary\/story?id=38399481\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">a story recently revealed by ABC news<\/a>: surveillance camera took a video of burglars, robbing a house. If this happened in Russian-speaking countries there would be a 99% chance that criminals would have an account on VK.com. One could use the service to find the culprits.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, many people in social media use fake names for privacy concerns, but publish real photos. They think that Internet is too huge and nobody will find them by a photo. Well, they sure will do if they want to. For example, employers like to check candidate\u2019s pages on social networks before an job interview.<\/p>\n<input type=\"hidden\" class=\"category_for_banner\" value=\"earth-2050\">\n<h3>How our employee found out that his digital identity was stolen<\/h3>\n<p>Some people just don\u2019t publish any photos in social networks. At all. For example, one of our employees operates in this manner. Yet, FindFace found him.<\/p>\n<p>The thing is that somebody called \u201cVitek Tizinksilov\u201d copied his photo from the gallery of another user, which was published in a different social network, and decided to use it as his profile picture.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Are your <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Social?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">#Social<\/a> photos all public? You may want to reconsider. A Tale of stolen identity. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/iXwrMP7kfI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/iXwrMP7kfI<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3IxwzeQnPb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/3IxwzeQnPb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kaspersky (@kaspersky) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kaspersky\/status\/692355037075501056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">January 27, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>When we\u2019ve tried searching Google Images for the very same photo, we\u2019ve found that this image was used as a profile pic on yet another social network as well, called Fotostrana (which can be translated as Photo Country). It was not a sweet discovery at all.<\/p>\n<p>So if you don\u2019t upload anything online it doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019re invisible: your friends might do it instead of you. If they post your portrait or even a group photo with you \u2014 nobody can predict the future of this image.<\/p>\n<p><b>Tip:<\/b> Before VK.com locks API used by this app to work you can check if you have any clones on the social media.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">3 real-world incidents where the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/internet?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">#internet<\/a> made someone's life hell <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/d50zA1j3yw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/d50zA1j3yw<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kLKFVoNGOa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/kLKFVoNGOa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kaspersky (@kaspersky) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kaspersky\/status\/717365111439114240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">April 5, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><i>Disclaimer: we have removed the data about people whose photos were taken during the experiment without their permission to publish them.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kaspersky Daily team checks if FindFace can really find users on a social media site with one image taken on the street and if it is possible to hide from it. Some interesting peculiarities detected!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":11918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1788,1789,9],"tags":[1020,1565,363,43,211,131],"class_list":{"0":"post-11916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-privacy","9":"category-technology","10":"category-tips","11":"tag-face-recognition","12":"tag-findface","13":"tag-personal-data","14":"tag-privacy","15":"tag-social-media","16":"tag-tips"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"x-default","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/findface-experiment\/11916\/"},{"hreflang":"en-us","url":"https:\/\/usa.kaspersky.com\/blog\/findface-experiment\/7056\/"},{"hreflang":"en-gb","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/findface-experiment\/7090\/"},{"hreflang":"es-mx","url":"https:\/\/latam.kaspersky.com\/blog\/findface-experiment\/7044\/"},{"hreflang":"es","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.es\/blog\/findface-experiment\/8212\/"},{"hreflang":"it","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.it\/blog\/findface-experiment\/8036\/"},{"hreflang":"ru","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.ru\/blog\/findface-experiment\/11671\/"},{"hreflang":"fr","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.fr\/blog\/findface-experiment\/5564\/"},{"hreflang":"de","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.de\/blog\/findface-experiment\/7505\/"},{"hreflang":"ja","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.co.jp\/findface-experiment\/11130\/"},{"hreflang":"ru-kz","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.kz\/findface-experiment\/11671\/"},{"hreflang":"en-au","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/findface-experiment\/11916\/"},{"hreflang":"en-za","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/findface-experiment\/11916\/"}],"acf":[],"banners":"","maintag":{"url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/tag\/tips\/","name":"tips"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11916"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18649,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11916\/revisions\/18649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}