About MegaPixels

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Ever since government agencies began developing face recognition in the early 1960's, datasets of face images have always been central to technological advancements. Today, these datasets no longer originate in labs, but instead from family photo albums posted on photo sharing sites, surveillance cameras on college campuses, search engine queries for celebrities, cafe livestreams, and personal videos posted on YouTube.

Collectively, facial recognition datasets are now gathered "in the wild".

MegaPixels is art and research by Adam Harvey about facial recognition datasets that unravels their histories, futures, geographies, and meanings. Throughout 2019 this site this site will publish research reports, visualizations, raw data, and interactive tools to explore how publicly available facial recognition datasets contribute to a global supply chain of biometric data that powers the global facial recognition industry.

During the last year, hundreds of these facial analysis datasets created "in the wild" have been collected to understand how they contribute to a global supply chain of biometric data that is powering the global facial recognition industry.

The MegaPixels website is produced in partnership with Mozilla.

Adam Harvey

is Berlin-based American artist and researcher. His previous projects (CV Dazzle, Stealth Wear, and SkyLift) explore the potential for countersurveillance as artwork. He is the founder of VFRAME (visual forensics software for human rights groups), the recipient of 2 PrototypeFund grants, and is a researcher in residence at Karlsruhe HfG.
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Jules LaPlace

is an American creative technologist also based in Berlin. He was previously the CTO of a digital agency in NYC and now also works at VFRAME, developing computer vision for human rights groups. Jules also builds creative software for artists and musicians.
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