Reverse Image Search

Reverse image search is a search method in which an image is entered instead of a term. The search engine then finds identical or similar images and displays the pages on which they have been published. A further development is facial search engines, which do not search for the image but for the face and can find the same person in completely different photos.

Technically, the service calculates a kind of fingerprint from the image based on shapes, colors, and structures, then compares it with images it has already indexed. This is why reverse searches also find cropped, mirrored, or slightly edited copies. A filter or a different image crop therefore does not reliably protect you from being found.

A Tool That Works Both Ways

For performers, the method is both useful and risky. It helps you keep track of your content and check providers. But it also helps third parties link your professional and private identities.

How to Use It for Self-Protection

• Find leaks. At regular intervals, upload some of your published images to reverse image search. This allows you to discover copies on sites where they should not appear. The leak entry explains what to do next.
• Discover fake profiles. If your image appears under someone else’s name, someone is using your identity, for example for fraud or fake fan profiles.
• Check providers. Run the profile picture of an alleged agent or producer through the search. If it comes from an image database or belongs to a different name, this is a clear indication of a Fake-Casting.
• Test your own traces. Try to see whether an image from your model card leads to private profiles, club websites, or old private photos.

The Risk: Linking Identities

Facial search engines make a stage name less effective as sole protection. Anyone who can be found with their face on a company portal, club website, or public social media profile may be identified through a single image from a production. This cannot be prevented completely. You can reduce the risk by setting private profiles to private, having old public images deleted, and using different photos for professional and private profile pictures. If you want to work without showing your face at all, you can find approaches in the article Reach Without Showing Your Face.

Legal Classification

Facial features processed for unambiguous identification are considered specially protected biometric data under European data protection law. This may give rise to rights to information and deletion vis-à-vis providers. Some facial search services offer a procedure that allows you to have your own images excluded. Whether this works permanently and reliably cannot be guaranteed from the outside.

What to Pay Attention To

Use the search regularly but in moderation, and record findings with the date and address. Do not upload private or unpublished images to unknown search services, because these services also store what they receive. Also check the metadata of your images before they go online at all.