Does Are You You? collect or upload my face data?

Updated

No. According to the site, Are You You? (areyouyou.eu) does not upload your face photos anywhere and does not collect personal data. The face recognition algorithm runs entirely locally in your own browser, and the site states it uses no cookies and no third-party tracking. The only thing stored is your final score, which acts as a viewer count.

What stays on your device

The site's privacy explanation is unusually direct for a camera-based game:

  • Camera access is required to play, but the page states that access is necessary only for the game itself.
  • The face recognition model loads and runs in your browser. Your photo is taken after a 5-second countdown and compared against your earlier captures on your own machine.
  • No pictures of your face are uploaded anywhere. The site says this explicitly ("Period.").
  • No cookies and no tracking. The sharing buttons are described as privacy-friendly, and the page states it contains no third-party tracking.
  • Only the final score is stored, and it serves as a viewer count.

What this means in practice

Because the matching happens locally, the sensitive part — a live camera image of your face — never needs to leave your device for the game to work. That is the key mechanism: the "AI" you are trying to fool is a model running in the same browser tab as the game.

A useful comparison: many online face-filter or face-test toys send frames to a server for processing. Here, the page's own description says the opposite. If you want to verify, you can open your browser's developer tools, watch the network activity while playing, and check whether image data is being sent out. The site's claim gives you a concrete thing to test rather than just take on faith.

Who made it and why

Are You You? is an educational project by artist and privacy designer Tijmen Schep, made as part of the Sherpa project — an EU-funded research consortium exploring how AI systems could better protect human rights. The stated goal is to show, light-heartedly, how difficult it can be to escape face recognition technology. That context matters for judging the privacy claims: the project's purpose is to demonstrate the technology, not to harvest faces.

The one thing that is stored

The final score is the exception. It is kept as a viewer count, so the site can show how many people have played. That is aggregate gameplay data, not face data — but it is still a record that you played, so treat "no personal data" as referring to your face images and identity, not as "nothing at all is recorded."

Practical checklist before you play

  1. Use a browser you trust and keep it updated, since the model runs locally in it.
  2. Check camera permissions — grant access only to areyouyou.eu, and revoke it afterward in your browser's site settings if you prefer.
  3. Play in a private setting if you are self-conscious; the camera is live during the 5-second countdown.
  4. Optionally inspect network traffic during a round to confirm no image uploads, if the privacy claim is the reason you are visiting.
  5. Skip it if you don't want any record of playing — the score is stored even though your face is not.

Bottom line

If your concern is whether your face gets uploaded or your identity collected, the site's own documentation says no: processing is local, there are no cookies or third-party trackers, and only an aggregate score is saved. The camera is genuinely used, so grant access deliberately — but the design keeps the face data on your side of the connection.