A face-search tool left more than 9 million photos sitting unprotected
A security researcher found more than 9 million face photos sitting in an unsecured ClarityCheck database that required no password to access.
An unsecured database linked to ClarityCheck, a people-search service, contained over 9 million photos, including faces of adults, teenagers, and children. Security researcher Jeremiah Fowler found the database, which did not require a password to access, and was reportedly accessible through a URL found in ClarityCheck's publicly available website code.
ClarityCheck has since restricted access, but the incident raises serious privacy concerns, especially with AI making impersonation and scams easier. Some of the images appeared to come from social media, dating profiles, and screenshots, suggesting that people may not have known their faces were in the database. ClarityCheck also had a separate security issue with its website APIs, as manipulating certain URLs and entering a person's name could reveal their email addresses, phone numbers, and physical addresses.
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