How to Opt Out of Facial Recognition Databases in 2026
Most people know their name and address are listed on data broker sites. Fewer realize that their face is in a database too — and that anyone with a photograph of them can use it to find out who they are, where they live, and where they've been online.
Facial recognition companies like Clearview AI and PimEyes have built massive databases by scraping billions of photos from the public internet. Every photo you've ever posted publicly — on social media, your employer's team page, a news article, an event gallery — has potentially been collected, indexed, and made searchable by anyone with access to these tools.
The threat isn't hypothetical. In 2024, two Harvard students demonstrated that they could identify strangers in real time using nothing more than Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses paired with PimEyes. They looked at someone, the glasses fed the image to PimEyes, and within seconds they had the person's name, address, and social media profiles. They published their findings publicly to raise awareness of how accessible this technology has become.
With Meta planning to launch its "Name Tag" facial recognition feature for smart glasses in 2026, the window for getting your face out of these databases is closing fast.
Here's how to do it.
What Facial Recognition Databases Exist?
There are two main categories: databases that let you opt out, and databases that don't.
Databases With Opt-Out Options
Clearview AI is the largest and most controversial. It has scraped over 50 billion images from the internet and sells access primarily to law enforcement agencies, though it has also worked with private companies and government bodies worldwide. It has been fined repeatedly by European data protection authorities and settled a major lawsuit with the ACLU.Clearview does offer an opt-out — but only for residents of states with privacy laws that require it. As of 2026, those states are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Utah, and Virginia. If you live in one of these states, you can request that Clearview delete your facial data. If you don't, there is no legal mechanism forcing them to comply — though submitting a request anyway sometimes works.
PimEyes is a publicly accessible face search engine. Unlike Clearview, which sells primarily to government and law enforcement, PimEyes is available to anyone willing to pay $29.99 per month. Upload a photo of anyone's face, and PimEyes will return every indexed page on the internet where that face appears. It does not search social media directly, but it covers news sites, blogs, public records, event photos, and thousands of other sources.PimEyes offers a free opt-out process. You upload a clear face photo and an anonymized copy of a government ID (with your name, address, and ID number covered — only the photo visible), and PimEyes removes matching images from their search index. Processing takes 48-96 hours.
Databases Without Public Opt-Out
FaceCheck.ID searches social media, dating apps, mugshot sites, and news sources. There is no public opt-out mechanism. The only way to reduce your exposure on FaceCheck is to remove the source photos from the websites where they were found. Google Lens, Yandex Images, TinEye, and Bing Visual Search are general reverse image search engines, not dedicated facial recognition tools. But they can all be used to find photos of your face online. None offer opt-out mechanisms for their search indexes — again, the only solution is removing the source images.How to Opt Out of Clearview AI
The process takes about five minutes, but eligibility depends on where you live.
Go to clearview.ai/privacy-and-requests. Scroll down to find your state. If your state is listed (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Utah, or Virginia), click through to the privacy request form. Select "Delete My Information" (or "Opt-Out" depending on how the form is currently structured — Clearview updates their interface periodically). Enter your email address. Use a dedicated privacy email, not your primary personal email. Upload a clear, front-facing photo of your face. Clearview needs this to match against their database and identify which records to delete. Complete the CAPTCHA and submit. You'll receive a confirmation email — click the link to verify your request. What if you don't live in an eligible state? Submit the request anyway. Select the closest applicable option or submit a general privacy inquiry. Clearview sometimes processes out-of-state requests, particularly if you cite general privacy concerns. There's no guarantee, but there's also no downside to asking. The catch: Clearview continuously scrapes the internet for new photos. Even after deletion, if your face photos remain publicly accessible online, Clearview can — and likely will — re-scrape and re-index them. This is why facial recognition opt-out must be paired with removing source photos from public websites.We recommend re-submitting your Clearview deletion request every six months.
How to Opt Out of PimEyes
PimEyes has the most straightforward opt-out process of any facial recognition service.
Go to pimeyes.com/en/opt-out-request-form. Upload a clear face photo. High-quality, well-lit, front-facing. PimEyes will match this against their index and remove any results that match. Upload an anonymized government ID. PimEyes requires this to verify that you're requesting removal of your own face, not someone else's. Cover your name, address, and ID number — only the photo on the ID should be visible. You can use tape, a marker, or a photo editor. Enter your email and check the consent boxes. Submit. PimEyes processes opt-outs within 48-96 hours. Key detail: Submit the opt-out multiple times with different photos of yourself. PimEyes matches against the specific photo you upload, and a single photo won't catch every indexed image of your face. Different angles, lighting conditions, and expressions surface different matches. We recommend submitting with 3-5 different photos, spaced a few days apart. What PimEyes opt-out does and doesn't do: It removes your face from PimEyes search results. It does NOT remove the original photos from the websites where they were found. Other facial recognition services can still scrape those photos. PimEyes opt-out is one layer of protection, not a complete solution.What About the Databases You Can't Opt Out Of?
For FaceCheck.ID, reverse image search engines, and any future facial recognition services that don't offer opt-outs, the strategy shifts from "opt out of the database" to "remove the source material."
Audit your exposure first. Before you can remove photos, you need to know where they are. Run your face through PimEyes (before opting out, so you can see results), FaceCheck.ID, Google Lens, Yandex Images, and TinEye. Document every URL where your face appears. Remove what you control. Set social media profiles to private. Remove or replace your profile photo on LinkedIn (LinkedIn photos are always public — use a controlled, professional headshot rather than a casual photo). Delete old photos from public Facebook albums. Remove yourself from your employer's team page (or request a replacement photo). Request removal from what you don't control. For news articles, event galleries, and other third-party sites, contact the site owner and request photo removal. If you own the copyright to the photo, you can file a DMCA takedown request. If the photo is on a data broker site, submit an opt-out through their standard process. Strip EXIF metadata from every photo before uploading anywhere. EXIF data can contain GPS coordinates, camera information, timestamps, and other metadata that helps facial recognition systems and data brokers link photos to identities. Free tools like ExifTool (desktop), Metapho (iOS), and Photo Exif Editor (Android) can strip this data in seconds.The Bigger Picture: Why This Matters Now
Facial recognition technology is expanding faster than the laws designed to regulate it. Clearview AI's database has grown from 3 billion images in 2020 to over 50 billion in 2025. Meta is building facial recognition into consumer smart glasses. Law enforcement use of facial recognition doubled between 2022 and 2023.
Meanwhile, only six U.S. states provide any legal mechanism for opting out of commercial facial recognition databases. Most Americans have no legal right to demand that their face be removed from these systems.
The practical implication: if you want your face out of these databases, you have to do it yourself, proactively, using the opt-out mechanisms that do exist — and then reduce the source material that feeds these systems.
It's not a perfect solution. But it's the only one available right now.
Professional Facial Recognition Auditing
If this process feels overwhelming, or if you want a thorough, multi-source audit of your facial exposure rather than a self-directed search, Dark Scrub offers a dedicated Photo Exposure Audit service.
We run your face through five independent scan methods — PimEyes, FaceCheck.ID, Google Lens, Yandex, and TinEye — document every URL where your face appears, submit opt-outs to Clearview AI and PimEyes on your behalf, and deliver a detailed report with every finding categorized by risk level and a prioritized removal action plan.
No automated privacy service currently offers facial recognition auditing. It's one of the services we built Dark Scrub to provide.
The Photo Exposure Audit is included in our Full Dark ($399) and Ghost Protocol ($599) tiers, or available as a standalone add-on for $149.Dark Scrub is a privacy consulting service that specializes in data broker removal, facial recognition countermeasures, and digital privacy auditing. Learn more at darkscrub.com.
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