PhotoDNA is the Microsoft tool created to combat the scourge of child pornography on the web. It is a system for tracking photos and images, “tagging” them, and rendering them effectively untransferable.
Microsoft has unveiled a new and more powerful weapon against child pornography: it’s called PhotoDNA, and it’s a highly sophisticated system that can recognize, tag, and stop child pornography images.
Leading the development of PhotoDNA is the Digital Crime Unit at Microsoft, which has developed this technology that enables iconographic recognition, either through reports or upon finding inappropriate photos detected online.
PhotoDNA then stores the image frame in its internal archive, tagging the photo.
This creates a sort of “genetic code” for the photo itself. Furthermore, thanks to its recognition function, PhotoDNA can trace other images in the archive that have the same subject.
Once a photo is tagged, it will no longer be possible to circulate or share it online.
This protects not only today’s children, victims of child pornography, but also those who were children yesterday. Unfortunately, thousands of such photos still circulate, perhaps uploaded many years ago.
Thus, in addition to creating an archive for comparing images (since PhotoDNA can recognize the same photo even if modified or with different resolutions, much like the new Google Images search functionality), it provides a tool that will automatically block transfers of photos “stamped” by PhotoDNA itself.
Currently, the system operates with the full cooperation of major social networks and search engines. However, to extend the service to broader areas such as private emails or encrypted newsgroups, authorizations from individual states would be required.
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