Can be used for dating and solving crimes using CCTV footage

Imagine a world in which you could not walk past someone on the street without them being able to identify you.

This is already a reality for some people, thanks to a new website designed in Russia.

'FindFace' uses a new algorithm to identify anyone from their profile picture using only a photograph, with 70 per cent accuracy.

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'FindFace' uses a new algorithm to identify anyone from their profile picture using only a photograph, with 70 per cent accuracy. The website works by comparing photographs to profile pictures on Vkontakte - a social network popular in Russia and the former Soviet Union with more than 200 million accounts

WHAT IS FINDFACE? The website works by comparing photographs to profile pictures on Vkontakte - a social network popular in Russia and the former Soviet Union with more than 200 million accounts. Unlike other face recognition technology, the FindFace algorithm allows quick searches in big data sets. 'With this algorithm, you can search through a billion photographs in less than a second from a normal computer,' co-founder Mr Kabakov told The Guardian. Advertisement

The website works by comparing photographs to profile pictures on Vkontakte - a social network popular in Russia and the former Soviet Union with more than 200 million accounts.

Unlike other face recognition technology, the FindFace algorithm allows quick searches in big data sets.

According to the company website, its primary use is for dating. The idea is a user would see someone they like, photograph them, find their identity, and then send them a friend request.

The algorithm also looks for similar people, and gives a list of 10 more people for you to approach.

In the two months since it launched, FindFace has gained 500,000 users and processed nearly 3 million searches, according to its Russian founders Artem Kukharenko and Alexander Kabakov.

'With this algorithm, you can search through a billion photographs in less than a second from a normal computer,' Mr Kabakov told The Guardian.

The website has already been used to solve crime, according to Russian website Geek Times.

If someone takes a photograph of you, they might be using it to find out who you are. Unlike other face recognition technology, the FindFace algorithm allows quick searches in big data sets

In the two months since it launched, Findface has gained 500,000 users and processed nearly 3 million searches, according to its Russian founders Artem Kukharenko and Alexander Kabakov

In April, CCTV footage captured two people setting fire to a building in St Petersburg. After a complaint was posted online, some 'internet activists' used FindFace to detect the offenders.

FINDFACE FIGHTING CRIME? In April, CCTV footage captured two people setting fire to a building in St Petersburg. After a complaint was posted online, some 'internet activists' used FindFace to detect the offenders. The startup is in the final stages of signing a contract with Moscow city government to work with the city's network of 150,000 CCTV cameras. The pair also claimed to have been contacted by police in Russian regions, saying they started loading suspect or witness photographs into FindFace and came up with results. Advertisement

The app has also been used by a St Petersburg photographer to snap and identify people on the city's metro, as well as by online vigilantes to uncover the social media profiles of female porn actors and harass them.

The technology can work with any photographic database, though it currently cannot use Facebook, because even the public photographs are stored in a way that is harder to access than Vkontakte, the app's creators told the Guardian.

The startup is in the final stages of signing a contract with Moscow city government to work with the city's network of 150,000 CCTV cameras.

The pair also claimed to have been contacted by police in Russian regions, saying they started loading suspect or witness photographs into FindFace and came up with results.

'It's nuts: there were cases that had seen no movement for years, and now they are being solved,' said Mr Kabakov.

