How to remove yourself from PimEyes

PimEyes offers a free opt-out that requires an identity document. Its paid PROtect plan is a different service, and removed photos can be indexed again if they remain available on their original websites.

What PimEyes actually is

PimEyes is a Poland-based face-search engine launched in 2017. It crawls publicly accessible photos on the web, extracts face geometry, and lets anyone upload a query photo to find other photos of that person in its index. That index runs to billions of photos, searchable in seconds.

The marketing pitches it as "find your own photos," which is useful if you want to know what unauthorized photos of you are online. The realistic use is the opposite: anyone with a single photo of you can find your other photos, which often reveal your workplace, friends, family, and neighborhood through context clues.

PimEyes has been the subject of GDPR complaints in the EU and privacy litigation in the US. The free opt-out flow described below was introduced and refined under regulatory pressure.

The step-by-step free opt-out

Find the opt-out form. PimEyes publishes the form at pimeyes.com/en/opt-out-form. It's the same flow whether you want a free or PROtect removal; the form asks which path you want.
Provide your details. Full name, email, and date of birth.
Upload a clear photo of your face. Front-facing and well-lit. Avoid sunglasses, hats, and heavy filters. PimEyes uses the photo to identify which face records in their index belong to you.
Upload a government ID. Passport, driver's license, or national ID. Required for verification. PimEyes states the ID is used solely for verification and deleted afterward; you're trusting that policy.
Submit and wait. 3 to 14 day turnaround. PimEyes searches their index for matches to your reference photo, then suppresses those records.
Verify. After receiving confirmation, search yourself on PimEyes using a different photo of yourself to confirm the suppression worked.

Keep the source and search index separate. Removing a face-search result does not remove the photo from the website hosting it.

Run a free scan →

Free opt-out vs. PROtect: the actual difference

The free opt-out is one-time. PimEyes suppresses the photos in their index at the time of your request. The technical scope of that suppression is limited:

Photos newly added to the index after your opt-out are not retroactively suppressed.
The same photo, hosted on a different URL, may be re-indexed as a "new" photo.
Photos that were not in the index when you opted out (because the source wasn't yet crawled) can be added later.

The paid PROtect plan addresses these limits: it monitors the index on an ongoing basis, alerts you when new matches appear, and auto-submits suppression for them.

Worth paying for if you're actively being searched for: a doxxing situation, recent media attention, a controversial public role. Probably not worth it if you're a typical user opting out preventively.

What PimEyes opt-out doesn't cover

Several things the suppression doesn't reach:

The actual photos at their source. PimEyes only suppresses the entry in their search index. Your photo on the original publisher's site (Instagram, news article, conference page) stays exactly where it is.
Other face-search services. FaceCheck.id, Clearview AI, and any emerging competitor have their own indexes. PimEyes removal doesn't propagate.
Photos with your face but no name attached. PimEyes indexes by face geometry, not by associated text. A blurry photo in a group shot that doesn't say your name is still searchable.
Reverse-image-search engines. Google Lens, TinEye, Yandex Images use different techniques and aren't suppressed by PimEyes opt-out.

If your goal is full face-search privacy

PimEyes opt-out alone is partial coverage. The full sweep is:

Free PimEyes opt-out (this page).
FaceCheck.id removal request (via their privacy page).
Clearview AI consumer privacy request (less reliably effective due to ongoing litigation).
Remove photos from the source where possible (delete from social profiles, request takedown from website operators).
For Illinois residents: assert BIPA rights explicitly. Face-search services tend to respond faster when Illinois residency is stated.

Frequently asked questions

Does the free PimEyes opt-out actually work?

Yes, with caveats. PimEyes processes free opt-out requests but requires identity verification (usually a government ID photo), and the suppression applies to photos already in their index at the time of the request. New photos indexed afterward are not automatically suppressed; that's the PROtect plan's function. So "opt-out" here means "stop showing my currently-indexed photos" rather than "never show me again."

Why does PimEyes need my government ID?

To verify the request is from the actual subject of the photos. Face-search services have a stronger verification incentive than text-based brokers, because a malicious removal request could be used to scrub photos of people the requester wants to hide. The ID is the minimum verification standard PimEyes uses. They state the ID is used only for verification and deleted afterward, but you're trusting their privacy policy on that.

Is the PROtect plan worth paying for?

Depends on your threat model. PROtect monitors PimEyes's index, alerts you to new matches, and automates removal of new indexed photos. For high-profile individuals, doxxing survivors, or anyone actively being searched for, that ongoing monitoring is the value. For most people, a one-time free opt-out covers the realistic case, since most users don't get new photos indexed weekly.

How long does PimEyes removal take?

Typical turnaround is 3 to 14 days after ID verification. PimEyes processes manually because they verify the ID against the photos. High-volume periods can stretch this to 3-4 weeks.

What about photos that get re-indexed later?

This is the structural limit of the free opt-out. PimEyes re-crawls the web on a rolling basis. A photo published after your opt-out, or one that wasn't in their index at the time, can be added later. Without PROtect monitoring or a third-party watcher, you have to re-check periodically and re-submit if new matches appear.