ARC

Sundial co-founder · building @Protectmyface, a service that tells you when your face gets posted online without your knowledge.

[ARC @arc4g]

Get notified whenever someone posts your face on the internet without your knowledge. And get the option to take it down.

Today I'm launching a passion project: https://t.co/PHtIqbzM0P

It's two things in one: continuously scan the internet for people posting your face, alerts you when it shows up, and the ability to take down those photos with a simple button. All in one subscription.

Why would I need this?

Curiosity: Most people would like to know if someone is posting their photos on random sites without their knowledge.

Digital hygiene: The ability to take down those photos lets you clean your digital footprint, especially for photos you don't like.

Bullying: There's a huge uptick in image-based bullying, especially with AI edits using someone's real face.

Peace of mind: even if you never exercise the takedown option, just knowing it's one click away is genuinely reassuring.

How does it work?

You upload a simple selfie and our system creates a private vector out of it, which is just a list of numbers. That vector is your unique math.

The vector can recognize when another face produces the same numbers.

We scan the internet comparing your vector against images we find online, focusing on the high-risk surfaces where image abuse actually clusters: image boards like 4chan, random public hate forums, and the broader public web.

When we detect a match we notify you through a simple email.

Like "hey, your face appeared on 4chan, a random forum, or a profile that isn't yours. Here's the link", and a convenient button to take it down using applicable laws that fit that case.

All notifications are through email so you don't have to keep checking the website.

Our scanner is continuous and always growing. It's not a one-time check. You sign up once and it keeps working in the background. have the peace of mind that if someone posts your face 9 months from now on a site we just added to our coverage, you'll still get notified. Coverage compounds.

CAN THIS BE USED TO STALK SOMEONE!?

No. ProtectMyFace is designed from the ground up to ONLY protect your own face. We use multiple verification methods to ensure the face being uploaded belongs to the account holder, including liveness checks and ID verification on flagged accounts.

Uploading someone else's face violates our terms of service and will result in account termination. We take abuse prevention seriously and actively monitor for misuse.

We also don't immediately deliver search results until a few days after account creation to make sure the account holder is protecting their own face and not using it to search for someone else's.

Our commitment to safety is a big differentiator between us and other services that let anyone search for photos that aren't theirs with zero safeguards.

Do you have experience building something this large? Is it secure?

ProtectMyFace isn't just me. It's built by Sundial, a team of privacy and identity engineers with years of experience building products where data security is non-negotiable. Our ongoing projects include Onflow and other identity products that handle critical data at scale. We bring the same standards to this project.

You scan the internet? Isn't that an almost impossible task?

It is. But we use clever smart crawling methods that target the most high-risk clusters of the internet and common places where image-based abuse happens most often. We also scan the general public web slowly as our infrastructure grows. So we're only getting better from here.

You can also submit links to photos you want taken down directly through your dashboard. So it's not only for photos our internet scanner finds. If you already know about a post using your face, you can hand us the link and we'll handle the takedown for you.

[ARC @arc4g]

Not many people know you can control what appears when people Google your name and hit the images tab

[ARC @arc4g]

I can't view my DMs because of this odd error

[ARC @arc4g]

helping people take down images with @protectmyface has been so satisfying. If you know anyone who needs help in this area DM me and I'll give them a free account

[ARC @arc4g]

I keep forgetting how nice everyone on the internet is outside of twitter. This site makes you get used to the replies being nitpicky and hostile to the point where you start thinking it's normal

[ARC @arc4g]

>Windows: Restart your pc I've been asking for weeks
>Me: ok restarts
>Windows: WiFi doesn't work now and half the screen is black :)
why does it keep doing this

[ARC @arc4g]

I wonder how many people are getting demotivated thinking no one likes their tweets, not knowing it's the new lottery system algorithm where grok judges your posts. Imagine getting judged by grok

[ARC @arc4g]

Knowing whenever someone posts your photos/face online without your knowledge should be something everyone has access to.

You shouldn't have to stumble across it randomly or rely on people tagging you. That's the basic thesis behind @protectmyface

[ARC @arc4g]

Working on adding extra features to @protectmyface. If anyone has suggestions feel free to reach out. Your feedback is really valuable at this stage.

[ARC @arc4g]

If you're ever curious about people uploading your pictures to Pinterest inspiration boards:

We just expanded our @protectmyface coverage to monitor a large portion of it. You can browse out of curiosity or take those photos down, all from your dashboard.

[Protect My Face @protectmyface]

We've added a convenient one-button way to file Take It Down Act requests on https://t.co/vWWbX91zwW if you ever need it. It covers AI edits as well.

[ARC @arc4g]

while working on PMF I realized there are a lot of people who take people's private photos and upload them to Pinterest inspiration boards.

And it's not famous influencers' photos, it's stolen photos from regular people just posting fits or whatever.

[ARC @arc4g]

Instagram latest most popular filters are straight up regenerating the entire photo 1:1 with ai just to add a highlight glow or something small

[ARC @arc4g]

@constexprvoid Some US residents got it to work. Just don't mention where you're from.

[ARC @arc4g]

Turns out there's a crazy ridiculous method that works even for servers you're no longer in.

1. Request your data package.
Settings, then Data & Privacy, then Request all of my data. Discord sends a ZIP

2. Convert it to a CSV.
Run an extraction script to turn the package into a two-column CSV (channel_id and message_id). Tools people use: bulk_deletion_helper (on GitHub), or the converter on the Discordomicon site.
(Or make your own script to be safe instead of random 3rd party ones)

3. File the request.
Go to Discord's support request form and select the data/privacy request type from the dropdown (the exact wording shifts over time, so look for the privacy or GDPR-related option), submit a GDPR Article 17 erasure request, and attach the CSV.

(Discordomicon has ready-made GDPR and UK-GDPR templates or you can write your own)

Important notes
Leave the servers first. Discord only deletes messages in servers and group DMs you've already left.

Request before deleting your account.
Unfortunately this only works if you do it BEFORE deleting your account. Once the account is in pending-deletion you can't file an erasure request.

It's inconsistent.
Sometimes done in about 6 days, sometimes a form reply and nothing happens. If so, re-request and resubmit.

it's super crazy you have to do this but that seems to be the only available method.

[ARC @arc4g]

crazy fact about discord is when you delete your account they still keep all the posts public even the photos and just switch the username to random letters. How is that legal? It's one of the only platforms that gets away with insane stuff like that

[ARC @arc4g]

This will only get more common as people chase influencer money and Meta shrinks the cameras on their "smart glasses."
Instagram and TikTok should adopt tech like @protectmyface that notifies you whenever your face shows up in a post you didn't know about.

[kimm⁷ @thvheals]

some influencer approached me & asked for my insta i said no sorry. i didnt know he was filming w meta glasses & now he has posted that reel & some weird looking creature has commented "always a 2/10 girl w attitude"😀
I texted the influencer to take it down hope he'll do it asap

[ARC @arc4g]

@SCHIZO_FREQ Yea OpenFeint

[ARC @arc4g]

@PandiTati That's odd, ignoring DMCA requests is usually a huge liability. The delay might be a discouragement tactic, but they can't stall forever.

Tip: emailing [email protected] directly is sometimes faster than the form even when they say it's not.

[ARC @arc4g]

I always wondered why artists rely on the weak report button instead of DMCA, and I learned it's because they don't want to reveal their legal name in the form.

Which is fair. But not many people know you can use an agent to file on your behalf, which keeps your info private.

[Psycho⭐Soldier ll Working on Comms ✏️ @R4udene]

Hi, some freak on Instagram stole my work, ran it through an AI, and uploaded it to their account. Disgusting. First is mine. Reports are more than appreciated.

[ARC @arc4g]

@R4udene amazing! Glad artists are fighting back

[ARC @arc4g]

ProtectMyFace,org's growth has been incredible. I expected it would resonate since people are naturally curious about where their photos end up online and who's posting them without their knowledge.

But i didn't expect it to happen this fast. For anyone not getting results yet, rest assured we're growing our infrastructure every day, and it'll only get better from here.