Reverse Image Search Engine?
- Thread starter petite
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HiddenLacey
Cherished Member
I never even knew there was such I thing. I know now not to share my face because then people could find me if it linked to facebook. That's super creepy.
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I know of two others, but they don't find exact image matches like tineye does. The first finds pictures with a similar colour palette. The second (and a little more useful, I think) finds pictures with a similar colour palette and matching shape.
Probably not what you're looking for, but pretty useful (and quite fun) when it comes to certain things.
Probably not what you're looking for, but pretty useful (and quite fun) when it comes to certain things.
HiddenLacey
Cherished Member
Thank you for asking that question, because I had someone I was chatting with ask and now I know better. That's dangerous.
Are any of the images here searchable by a search engine? I have seen avatars before...but I'm not sure they can see photos unless they are logged in as a member of the site.
Yes they are! It found the original image that my avatar came from!
3 results - TinEye
And it sees my wrist photo:
http://www.tineye.com/search/33101cfe803fbad2353f583a3463027abb66714d
Album pics seem to be protected.
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SilverTrain
Legendary Member
I agree that it's important to protect your identity. What could anyone gain from identifying an avatar pic though? Unless you use the same av on different sites.
I don't know of any other reverse searches. I'm sure the mods must use Tineye to identify some users' stolen pics.
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Think about it. You're missing the obvious.
It would matter if your avatar pic came from a photo that's on your FaceBook page, blog, online photo album, someone else's online photo album that identifies your name, etc. Many people like the same images so much that they re-use them in different places, unintentionally linking an anonymous identity with a public one. For instance, my company's website has a lot of personal information about me. If I unwisely chose an image that can also be found on my own company website, then people who have seen me on cam would recognize my photo there, know my name, and where I work if they used TinEye to find that website. The same thing could happen with FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn, blogs, etc.
I was just using my avatar image to demonstrate that TinEye "sees" avatar pics. I would not have posted that link if it linked to any identifying information about me. I'm obviously concerned about images that are not my avatar pic, or else I would not have used it as an example.
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As far as I'm aware, avatars are indexed by Tineye - this is possible since avatars are open to everyone (hence the insistance of no nude avatars).
However, the link for Petite's wrist picture shows as zero matches - this seems correct as I believe Gallery & Album pics are not indexed by Tineye. You have to be a member to see such pics and the Tineye 'crawler' does not have permission to access either Albums or Galleries as a user would.
As an aside - even though Petite's avatar has different hair colouring and different writing, Tineye still finds matches to the original images. How ???!?!?!?
However, the link for Petite's wrist picture shows as zero matches - this seems correct as I believe Gallery & Album pics are not indexed by Tineye. You have to be a member to see such pics and the Tineye 'crawler' does not have permission to access either Albums or Galleries as a user would.
As an aside - even though Petite's avatar has different hair colouring and different writing, Tineye still finds matches to the original images. How ???!?!?!?
I didn't upload the wrist photo to TinEye, I used the photo's URL and it was able to access that image. When I tried the page URL with the embedded photo, it could not see that image, only the blurry one that non-gold members see.
The same thing did not work when I tried it for the album photos, which seem to be protected by a 1 pixel transparent overlay.
It's really cool isn't it? Very sophisticated! I have no idea how it did it!
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HiddenLacey
Cherished Member
I still think it's creepy. I'm going to check my facebook image's now and make sure nothing links to anywhere. Being fodder on the internet is different from someone being able to find out personal info like where we live in real life.
because it searches for accordances in pictures, for example the shape a connected amount of same color or similar color pixels form. It is not needed to have 100% accordances to be listed there, it just has to be an amount that is to big to be just coincidental.
Kind of similar you go about finding text information, you don't need to search for the exact wording, but need certain key words to make sure you find what you are searching for, the bigger the conformity between your key words and the results the bigger the chance it is what you searched for. With picture it is pretty much the same, a digital picture is just as a text just an assembly of information.
Kind of similar you go about finding text information, you don't need to search for the exact wording, but need certain key words to make sure you find what you are searching for, the bigger the conformity between your key words and the results the bigger the chance it is what you searched for. With picture it is pretty much the same, a digital picture is just as a text just an assembly of information.
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Tineye does find facebook images unless you have your facebook privacy settings configured.
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I like this thread. It's an excellent idea for internet users to be aware of their presence online, and to realize that there are really creepy stalker types out there (and in here) who are constantly trying to piece together members' identities for their own nefarious purposes.
My opinion is that one cannot be too careful in protecting their identity online.
It's also in your interest to know the laws in your state that govern online stalking and harassment...it's invaluable knowledge to have on your side should you ever find yourself the target of some psychopaths' obsessions.
My opinion is that one cannot be too careful in protecting their identity online.
It's also in your interest to know the laws in your state that govern online stalking and harassment...it's invaluable knowledge to have on your side should you ever find yourself the target of some psychopaths' obsessions.
Yes, a lot of people assume that as long as no one can see their face in a photo, then their identity is protected, but if they're using a photo that's elsewhere on the internet, just cutting off your head or blurring your own face doesn't protect your identity with TinEye. If someone tried your vacation photo sans head and that photo is also on your blog that only gets 3 visitors per day, all of them relatives, so you assumed that no one would ever run across it accidentally, then a stranger might suddenly know everything about you!
I'm a hyper-aware, but I've had experiences in the past that have made me constantly paranoid.
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TinEye was LPSG's 'worst kept secret' for a short time. :frown1:
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