Profile photo checker
15 points to run through before publishing
The tool runs through fifteen points about your profile photos and reports on two separate scales: how easily the photos let someone locate you, and how likely your profile is to be read as fake. Every point you tick produces its own fix. Photos are not uploaded anywhere — the tool asks about them and you answer. A facial image is biometric data, and processing it for the sake of a checklist would not be proportionate.
Look at your own profile photos and tick the points that apply. Photos are not uploaded anywhere and nothing is sent to a server.
How easily the photos let someone find you in real life.
How likely your profile is to be read as fake and skipped.
Nothing is ticked. Go through each photo separately even so — a checklist finds only what it asks about.
Removing a photo from a profile does not remove it from wherever it has already been saved. This list helps before publishing, not after.
The tool does not see your photos. It asks about them and you answer. A facial image is biometric data, a special category under Article 9 of the GDPR, and processing that for the sake of a checklist would not be proportionate.
A photo says more than the profile text
In the profile text you tell people what you chose to tell them. In a photo you also tell them what you did not notice you were choosing.
The ordinary example is workwear. One picture carrying an employer’s logo narrows the search from thousands of people to a few dozen, and the company’s own website finishes the job. The same goes for an access badge, professional clothing and premises visible behind you.
The second is an address. A house number, a street corner or a doorway in the background is often enough for the address to turn up in a map service’s street view. Of all these facts it is the one you cannot take back: a username can be changed, an address cannot.
The third is repetition. The same photo on a dating profile and on Instagram links the two by reverse image search in seconds, and after that everything said on one service applies to the other. The same is true of a username, which is searchable straight from a search engine.
None of this takes skill or software. It sits at the distance where people do it out of ordinary curiosity — which is exactly why the photos are worth looking at before publishing rather than after.
Two risks that are not added together
The tool has two scales, and that is deliberate. They measure different things, and their fixes point in opposite directions.
Identifiability is how easily the photos lead into your actual life: to a name, a workplace, a home, a routine. This is fixed by removing and cropping.
Credibility is how likely your profile is to be read as fake. A professionally shot set, every photo from the same day, no face anywhere — these are the same markers by which a scam profile is recognised. This is fixed by adding.
Added into one figure, the scales would cancel each other out. Someone who hides everything earns an excellent identifiability score and a profile nobody takes seriously. The balance here is not a compromise but two separate decisions: what you take out, and what you put in instead.
The same pattern is worked through from the other side on the page nine markers of a fake profile. The list you use to recognise someone else also tells you how your own profile looks to the person reading it.
Why we do not look at your photos
Image recognition would be technically easy. We do not do it, and the reason is written down here so that it can be checked.
A facial image falls under the special category of data in Article 9 of the data protection regulation when it is processed to identify a person. The threshold for processing a special category is higher than for ordinary personal data, and "we will give you a tip about the background" does not clear it.
The second reason is practical. The promise that "the photo is deleted immediately after processing" is unverifiable: a user has no way to confirm it, and it is precisely the promise many services make with no evidence that they keep it. The only reliable way not to mishandle data is not to take it in.
So the tool asks about the photos instead of looking at them. Answers are worked out in your browser, nothing is sent to a server, there is no sign-up on the site, and no email address is requested at any stage.
Reverse image search cuts both ways
A reverse image search means searching with a picture rather than with words: you supply an image and get back a list of places where the same image appears online.
In one direction it is protection. If your own photo turns up on several profiles you did not create, that is identity theft, and it is worth acting on. In Victim Support Finland’s (Rikosuhripäivystys) material, identity theft is an offence under Chapter 38, Section 9a of the Criminal Code.
In the other direction it is a risk. The same search you protect yourself with is available against your photo too. So a profile picture is best taken from a photo that exists nowhere else — not because you are hiding something, but so that a dating profile does not open the door to your other accounts.
We do not run the search here. That would mean sending an image to an outside service through our site, which is exactly what the previous section avoids. You can run it yourself directly in a search engine — and if an old result no longer belongs in view, the Data Protection Ombudsman’s guidance on search engines explains how to ask for a result to be removed.
What the list does not find
It finds only what it asks about. The fifteen points are drawn from the commonest cases, but your particular photo may say something the list does not cover — look at each picture separately and put the same question to it: what can be worked out from this.
It cannot see the photo’s metadata. Some services strip location data on upload and some do not, and there is no way to tell from outside which kind a service is. Sending a photo in a conversation straight from the camera is not the same as uploading it to a profile.
It deletes nothing. Removing a photo from a profile does not remove it from wherever it has already been saved: the screenshot was taken while the photo was visible. This list helps before publishing, not after.
And it is not a guarantee. It is a checklist that takes a few minutes to work through and clears most of what usually gets noticed too late.
What gets read out of a photo
| Visible in the photo | What follows from it | Which scale |
|---|---|---|
| Employer logo or access badge | The workplace, and through it a name | Identifiability |
| House number or street view | Home address | Identifiability |
| Number plate | A link to the vehicle register | Identifiability |
| The same photo elsewhere online | Profiles linked by image search | Identifiability |
| Every photo from the same day | Read as a marker of a fake profile | Credibility |
| No photo showing a face | The profile is skipped or suspected | Credibility |
The scales are kept apart because their fixes are opposites: one is fixed by removing, the other by adding.
Frequently asked
Are my photos uploaded anywhere?
No. The tool never sees the photos — it asks about them and you answer with tick boxes. The calculation runs in your browser, nothing goes to a server, and there is no sign-up on the site.
Why do you not analyse the photo for me?
A facial image belongs to the special category of data under Article 9 of the GDPR when processed for identification, and offering a checklist is not a sufficient basis for that processing. Beyond that, a promise to delete the photo immediately after processing is something a user cannot verify. The surest way not to mishandle data is not to take it in.
How many points may be ticked?
On identifiability, one can be enough. A house number or an employer’s logo leads to a name with nothing else, so the scale rises from a small count. On credibility, one tick is a note and two is already a problem.
Why is a professional photo a risk?
It is a risk to credibility, not to safety. A polished set is one of the best-known markers of a fake profile, because scam profiles use stolen modelling shots. The fix is adding rather than removing: mix in ordinary everyday photos from different times.
Does deleting a photo remove it for good?
No. A screenshot was taken while the photo was visible, and removing it from a profile does not reach where it has already been saved. That is why the check belongs before publishing.
I found my photo on a profile I did not create. What do I do?
That is identity theft, an offence under Chapter 38, Section 9a of the Criminal Code. Keep screenshots, report the profile to the service itself, and file a police report at poliisi.fi. Support is available from Victim Support Finland (Rikosuhripäivystys) on 116 006, free of charge.
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