An Eye On TinEye - Search for Images With Images?
Posted By: Rob on Jul 9, 5:30 pm

Recently I was made aware of a website called TinEye. It is a search engine for images with a twist. Rather than entering in a query string as you would do for a site like Google Image Search, TinEye takes a different approach. You are asked to upload an image to their service. The TinEye system then “fingerprints” that image and searches it’s database for images with the same general fingerprint.

Now, at first I could see no real use for this service. Why search for an image you already have? However, I am but one person on the internet and the usefulness (or at the time “lack-there-of”) would be different from other users. For example, Candace Holly of The Spark podcast was looking for a particular art print. She had a local copy of the image and was able to successfully find other copies of that image. Okay, usefulness wins that round.

Now, for my search I took something a little pop but also niche. A Full-Metal Alchemist desktop background. I ran the search and it found hundreds of copies of the image. Again, big freaking deal. Why would I need the same wallpaper? Well, I thought the same thing until I noticed that it found higher quality versions of the image as well as higher resolution ones as well. Okay, I am “kinda” sold.

Another savvy web-user friend of mine also suggested “you could also use this to find an image of yours that you don’t want out there”. True, that is definitely a useful feature, however, the fact that you have to upload that image to the TinEye service makes me take pause. Say I won the lotto, made a “Scrooge McDuck”-style Money Bin but instead of gold coins I filled it with Wisconsin’s finest cheese products, stripped myself down to my birthday suit, swam around in the dairy goodness all the while having a photographer taking snapshots of the event for my…. *clears throat* … personal collection. Well, if I wanted to find out if any of those… *clears throat* …theoretically photos, happened to get released online, I would have to upload them to the Internet myself. Sure I only have to upload them to TinEye, but the fact of the matter is that they are still being uploaded to a website that I have no control over.

So I took the next step (and no, I didn’t buy a lotto ticket). Instead I did the next best thing and loaded up their Frequently Asked Questions as well as their Terms of Service. Nowhere within either was I able to find information on what is done with the images AFTER the search has completed. There is no word on what they do with the images that are uploaded for a search. Do they keep them stored in their servers or do they just keep the fingerprints that are generated?

From the Terms of Service of TinEye,

Submission of pornographic or illegal files is strictly prohibited. Do not submit any file that can be construed as pornography or is in violation of any law. Failure to comply with these terms may result in termination of your TinEye account at any time, without prior notice and at Idée’s sole discretion.

Okay, so even IF my naked Money Bin cheese party photos got out on the internet, my TinEye account could be banned if I searched for them. I guess they wouldn’t really be considered pornographic unless the cheese somehow got wedged into me… *clears throat* …somehow.

All in all, TinEye is an interesting Internet search start-up that does have it’s uses. The privacy concerns of what they actually do with the images once they are uploaded, however, is another matter.

Related Stories

• Google And Private User Data - Double Standard?

Leave a Reply