Who says the CIA, NSA and FBI are the only ones who can use pictures to identify people by name and otherwise get the lowdown?
Via such services as TinyEye, a Google equivalent or Image Raider, you can upload an image or point to a URL and find out where it’s shown up before on the Web, if it has.
Just feed in a photo of a business or romantic prospect or anyone else you want to check out.
Of relevance in a publishing context, reverse image searches can show where images have been used before and at least help you determine if they’re safe to pick up.
You might be able to find out who owns them, so you can ask permission if it’s needed.
Of course: This technology is a mixed blessing. Once again it’s tech vs. privacy.
Related: Wikipedia item and Reverse Image Search Engines, Apps and Uses. The screenshot to the left shows results from Google’s image searcher.
