A San Diego-based firm that uses face recognition to trawl the Internet for places personal images are being re-used has signed up 10,000 users in the first quarter of operation, the company revealed on 8 January.Launched in the third quarter of 2014, Face Guardian says its service was designed to fill a void in the privacy and identity theft protection industry.”Our goal is to help our users become more aware about their images' footprint on the web, while promoting awareness about best practices in image privacy and protection,” said Ian Koskela, chief executive officer of Face Data, Inc., the company behind Face Guardian.Using facial recognition technology, the service alerts users when a duplicate instance of a protected face photo is found on the web.A separate remediation service is also offered for identifiable instances of image misuse, in which Face Guardian will negotiate for the removal of an image from the offending source.Koskela notes how numerous, high-profile privacy breaches in 2014 have thrown a spotlight on the importance of protecting digital identity management.”Although image theft has long been an issue on the Internet, 2014 proved to be an exceptionally alarming year for anyone concerned about the privacy and security of their images,” said Koskela. “Between the high-profile celebrity photo hacks, and the incident where over 100,000 private Snapchat images were leaked, this year has proved that everyone is vulnerable”.While users can sign up to monitor one photo for free, a premium service is also, priced at $9.95 per month, which allows users to guard up to 10 photos at a time.

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