How to Opt Out of PimEyes (2026 Step-by-Step Guide)

PimEyes is a public, subscription-based reverse face search engine. Anyone can upload a photo of you and get back a list of webpages where your face appears, no law enforcement credentials required. That accessibility is what makes it different from Clearview AI, and why removal matters if you have ever posted a clear photo of yourself online. Here's how the opt-out actually works, what it does and doesn't cover, and where PimEyes still has unresolved regulatory problems.

Key Takeaways

• PimEyes' opt-out requires uploading a clear photo of your face plus a government-issued ID at pimeyes.com/en/opt-out-request-form — this suppresses your face from PimEyes' own search results only.
• The free opt-out does not remove your image from the third-party websites where PimEyes found it. To send automated takedown notices to those hosting sites, PimEyes charges $79.99/month for its "PROtect" subscription tier.
• PimEyes' self-reported, unaudited claim is a database of nearly 3 billion faces, run through a company structure that has shifted across Poland, the Seychelles, Belize, and now Dubai (under EMEA Robotics) — a structure that has made regulatory enforcement difficult.
• On April 30, 2026, the digital rights group NOYB (backed by the Chaos Computer Club) sued Germany's Hamburg data protection authority for closing a years-long investigation into PimEyes without issuing any enforcement order, despite the regulator itself acknowledging PimEyes' practices were likely unlawful under GDPR.
• Independent academic research (a 2026 peer-reviewed study on facial recognition accuracy) has found that low-quality, web-scraped probe images — exactly the kind PimEyes searches against — significantly increase false-positive match rates, with pronounced demographic disparities.

What PimEyes Actually Does

PimEyes lets anyone upload a photo and run a reverse face search against its index of images scraped from the open web — news sites, blogs, forums, and other public pages. Unlike Clearview AI, there's no gatekeeping: it's marketed directly to consumers for purposes like checking your own online exposure, verifying a dating match's identity, or finding stolen photos.

That same accessibility is the core privacy problem. A stalker, an abusive ex-partner, or anyone else with your photo and $29.99–$79.99/month can find every public webpage where your face appears, including ones you may not know link back to your real identity.

PimEyes' own marketing states its index holds nearly 3 billion faces, processing roughly 118,000 searches per day. This is a self-reported figure from the company; it has not been independently audited.

How to Opt Out of PimEyes: Step-by-Step

Step 1: Search for your own face first

Before opting out, run a search on PimEyes using a clear, recent photo of yourself so you know what's currently indexed. (This does cost a subscription for full results, though a limited free preview is available.)

Step 2: Go to the opt-out request form

Navigate to pimeyes.com/en/opt-out-request-form.

Step 3: Upload a clear photo of your face

PimEyes needs a clean facial photo to match against its index and identify which entries belong to you.

Step 4: Upload a government-issued ID

PimEyes requires an anonymized (non-sensitive fields redacted) scan of a passport or ID card to verify you are the person in the photo before processing removal.

Step 5: Submit and wait for confirmation

Once approved, your face is suppressed from PimEyes' own search index.

Step 6: Understand what this does not do

The free opt-out removes you from PimEyes' search results — it does not contact the websites hosting your photos and ask them to take the image down. The underlying pages stay up and can still be found through other search engines or face-search tools.

The PROtect Paywall: Automated Takedowns Cost Extra

PimEyes' free opt-out only suppresses your face from its own results. To have PimEyes automatically generate and send DMCA and GDPR takedown requests to the third-party sites actually hosting your images, you need the "PROtect" subscription at $79.99/month. For many people this puts comprehensive removal — actually getting the photo taken down at the source, not just hidden from one search tool — behind a recurring paywall from the same company whose product created the exposure in the first place.

PimEyes' Regulatory History: Unlawful, But Largely Unenforced

PimEyes has operated across a series of corporate jurisdictions — Poland, the Seychelles, Belize, and currently listing ownership under EMEA Robotics in Dubai. This jurisdiction-shifting has been central to how the company has avoided sustained enforcement.

Germany's Hamburg data protection authority (HmbBfDI) opened an investigation into PimEyes back in July 2020. In November 2025, the regulator closed that investigation — while acknowledging that PimEyes' practices were likely unlawful under the GDPR — citing PimEyes' Dubai jurisdiction and its failure to respond to official inquiries as practical barriers to enforcement.

On April 30, 2026, the digital rights organization NOYB, supported by the Chaos Computer Club, filed a lawsuit against the Hamburg authority itself over that decision. The suit argues the regulator has extraterritorial tools available (such as freezing PimEyes' assets in Europe or sanctioning any European service providers it uses) and should be compelled to use them rather than abandon enforcement because the company is hard to reach.

The practical upshot: European regulators have already concluded PimEyes likely violates data protection law, but as of mid-2026, no enforcement order has actually been issued against it. That makes individual opt-out requests the most reliable near-term remedy available to you.

Accuracy Concerns: Who's Most at Risk of a False Match

A 2026 peer-reviewed study on facial recognition accuracy found that low-quality or degraded probe images — the kind commonly scraped from social media and casual photos, exactly what PimEyes' index is built from — substantially increase false-positive identification rates in one-to-many face-search models. The research also found the increase in false positives is not evenly distributed: certain demographic groups face meaningfully higher misidentification risk than others under the same degraded-image conditions.

This matters for anyone whose only publicly available photos are lower-resolution or older: a face-search match returned by PimEyes is not a guaranteed correct identification, and being reverse-image-searched can surface a false match tied to your face just as easily as an accurate one.

PimEyes vs. Clearview AI vs. FaceCheck.ID

Frequently Asked Questions

Is PimEyes legal?

Its legal status is unresolved and jurisdiction-dependent. German regulators have concluded PimEyes' practices are likely unlawful under GDPR but have not issued a formal enforcement order, citing difficulty reaching the company across its shifting corporate jurisdictions (most recently Dubai). A 2026 lawsuit by NOYB is actively challenging that lack of enforcement.

Does opting out of PimEyes remove my photo from the internet?

No, not by default. The free opt-out only removes your face from PimEyes' own search index. The webpage hosting your photo stays live. To have PimEyes send takedown requests to those third-party sites, you need its paid "PROtect" tier at $79.99/month.

What do I need to submit a PimEyes opt-out?

A clear photo of your face and a government-issued ID (with sensitive fields like your ID number reasonably redacted), submitted through PimEyes' official opt-out form.

How accurate is PimEyes?

Independent 2026 research on facial recognition systems found that low-quality, web-scraped images — the type PimEyes' index is largely built from — meaningfully increase false-positive match rates, with the effect landing unevenly across demographic groups. A PimEyes result should not be treated as a confirmed identification.

How big is PimEyes' database?

PimEyes states its index holds nearly 3 billion faces. This is a self-reported company figure that has not been independently audited.

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• How to Opt Out of Clearview AI
• How to Opt Out of FaceCheck.ID
• How AI Companies Scrape and Sell Your Data
• Complete Data Broker Opt-Out Guide
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