u/mrbebop

It's called a faceprint - a code made from the shape of your face - how far apart your eyes are, how wide your nose is, the shape of your jaw etc. It comes from a photo, but it's not a photo. It's more of a biometric identifier, like a fingerprint, or an iris scan.

Apps such as Google Photos make faceprints of all the people in your photos - you, your parents, your children, your friends. This is what lets you find someone in your gallery just by name. Other apps make faceprints just for you, for things such as letting you unlock your phone.

Some apps are safer because they keep your faceprint only on your own phone, instead of sending it to a company's servers. But this is NOT the norm. Most companies store your faceprint on their servers, and are quietly building a collection of faces.

Why YSK: You can change a password after a leak. You can't change your face. Generative AI now allows people to recreate faces from a faceprint. Faceprints are also actively used for tracking purposes - the best example being Clearview AI that has almost 70 billion images of people in their collection, that they provide to police departments and private companies, allowing them to track people based just on a photo.

What you can do: Try to use products and services that keep your data on your devices. Try to use products that are end-to-end-encrypted. If and when you are removing a service that might have created a faceprint, make sure to actively request deletion of all your data.

It'S jUst a liCeNse plAte rEader foR stoLen cArs!

This is absolute madness.