Harvesting Faces from Social Media Photos for Biometric Analysis

The accuracy of automatic face recognition has increased significantly over the last decade. Technology developers actively try to improve their tools and algorithms; for this to occur, there is a need for high-quality datasets with a large number of images to test and develop new techniques. Online social networks provide a vast digital media resource, given the volume of traffic that goes through its infrastructure. The content within it varies but is predominately flooded by images. In this era where selfies are the norm, we examine a collection method employed to harvest face data from the subject’s images via the web. We then show how it can be processed and organized so that it is useful for biometric applications. In addition, this experiment demonstrates how restrictions put in place by social media platforms are inadequate in the protection of their user’s data.