Photo Storage App Reportedly Used Customers

Photo Storage App Reportedly Used Customers' Images to Train a Facial Recognition System

Ever, a photo storage and backup app, reportedly trained a commercial facial recognition system using millions of images uploaded to the service without notifying users.

  • By Jessica Davis
  • May 10, 2019

Millions of images uploaded to Ever, a photo storage and backup app, were reportedly used by the service without user knowledge to train a commercial facial recognition system. According to NBC News, Ever didn’t disclose to users of the app that their images would be used this way.

Ever uses photos uploaded to its app to train a facial recognition algorithm that powers products like a facial recognition system offered by the company to law enforcement and private companies, sold under Ever AI. Ever’s website doesn’t make this clear to users, NBC News reported, and the app only recently updated its privacy policy with more information on how customers’ photos are used by the company.

The privacy policy had previously explained that the facial recognition technology in the app—such as an opt-in face-tagging feature allowing users to search for specific friends or family on the app—was used to help “organize your files and enable you to share them with the right people.” One line— “Your files may be used to help improve and train our products and these technologies”—was the only indication the policy included that the photos could or would be used otherwise.

After NBC News first made contact with Ever for its reporting, the company added the following sentence to clarify and explain further: “Some of these technologies may be used in our separate products and services for enterprise customers, including our enterprise face recognition offerings, but your files and personal information will not be,” the policy now states.

CEO Doug Aley told NBC News that Ever AI doesn’t share photos or identifying information about users of its app with its facial recognition customers.

According to Aley, Ever decided to explore facial recognition a few years ago when he and other company leadership realized that a free photo app with some premium features for purchase “wasn’t going to be a venture-scale business.” Aley said that Ever having a “corpus” of more than 13 billion images was very valuable when developing an algorithm for facial recognition.

“If you are able to feed a system many millions of faces, that system is going to end up being better and more accurate on the other side of that,” he said.

NBC News reports that Ever AI has contracts with private companies but hasn’t signed with any “law enforcement, military or national security agencies”.

On the company’s website, Ever AI encourages public agencies to use its “technology to provide your citizens and law enforcement personnel with the highest degree of protection from crime, violence and injustice.”

About the Author

Jessica Davis is the Associate Content Editor for 1105 Media.

Featured

  • Security Today Announces 2025 CyberSecured Award Winners

    Security Today is pleased to announce the 2025 CyberSecured Awards winners. Sixteen companies are being recognized this year for their network products and other cybersecurity initiatives that secure our world today. Read Now

  • Empowering and Securing a Mobile Workforce

    What happens when technology lets you work anywhere – but exposes you to security threats everywhere? This is the reality of modern work. No longer tethered to desks, work happens everywhere – in the office, from home, on the road, and in countless locations in between. Read Now

  • TSA Introduces New $45 Fee Option for Travelers Without REAL ID Starting February 1

    The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced today that it will refer all passengers who do not present an acceptable form of ID and still want to fly an option to pay a $45 fee to use a modernized alternative identity verification system, TSA Confirm.ID, to establish identity at security checkpoints beginning on February 1, 2026. Read Now

  • The Evolution of IP Camera Intelligence

    As the 30th anniversary of the IP camera approaches in 2026, it is worth reflecting on how far we have come. The first network camera, launched in 1996, delivered one frame every 17 seconds—not impressive by today’s standards, but groundbreaking at the time. It did something that no analog system could: transmit video over a standard IP network. Read Now

  • From Surveillance to Intelligence

    Years ago, it would have been significantly more expensive to run an analytic like that — requiring a custom-built solution with burdensome infrastructure demands — but modern edge devices have made it accessible to everyone. It also saves time, which is a critical factor if a missing child is involved. Video compression technology has played a critical role as well. Over the years, significant advancements have been made in video coding standards — including H.263, MPEG formats, and H.264—alongside compression optimization technologies developed by IP video manufacturers to improve efficiency without sacrificing quality. The open-source AV1 codec developed by the Alliance for Open Media—a consortium including Google, Netflix, Microsoft, Amazon and others — is already the preferred decoder for cloud-based applications, and is quickly becoming the standard for video compression of all types. Read Now

Most   Popular

New Products

  • Connect ONE’s powerful cloud-hosted management platform provides the means to tailor lockdowns and emergency mass notifications throughout a facility – while simultaneously alerting occupants to hazards or next steps, like evacuation.

    Connect ONE®

    Connect ONE’s powerful cloud-hosted management platform provides the means to tailor lockdowns and emergency mass notifications throughout a facility – while simultaneously alerting occupants to hazards or next steps, like evacuation.

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”

  • ResponderLink

    ResponderLink

    Shooter Detection Systems (SDS), an Alarm.com company and a global leader in gunshot detection solutions, has introduced ResponderLink, a groundbreaking new 911 notification service for gunshot events. ResponderLink completes the circle from detection to 911 notification to first responder awareness, giving law enforcement enhanced situational intelligence they urgently need to save lives. Integrating SDS’s proven gunshot detection system with Noonlight’s SendPolice platform, ResponderLink is the first solution to automatically deliver real-time gunshot detection data to 911 call centers and first responders. When shots are detected, the 911 dispatching center, also known as the Public Safety Answering Point or PSAP, is contacted based on the gunfire location, enabling faster initiation of life-saving emergency protocols.