Guardian — Distributed Missing Persons Detection

Compare a Photo

Upload a photograph to compare against our database of 3,889 active reference encodings from FBI, NamUs, and Interpol. The image is deleted immediately after comparison.

What Guardian Does

Guardian is a nonprofit public‑safety research platform designed to help generate possible missing‑person leads through privacy‑preserving photo comparison. Guardian allows users to submit photos they are legally permitted to share and compare them against public missing‑person and public‑safety reference records. Results are possible leads only and must be verified by the appropriate official agency.

How It Works

Guardian converts reference photos from public databases into 512‑dimensional mathematical vectors. When a query photo is submitted, only the math compares — the image is deleted immediately. Guardian is a research and public‑safety tool, not a verified identification system.

NIJ Research Alignment

Guardian is being submitted for consideration under NIJ FY25 Research and Evaluation on Human Trafficking, Opportunity O‑NIJ‑2025‑172606. Guardian is not a law enforcement identification system. Match results are possible leads only, and all identity determinations must be made by law enforcement or the appropriate official agency.

Guardian's false‑positive and false‑negative rates will be measured during the evaluation phase using known‑positive, known‑negative, no‑face, multi‑face, low‑light, and image‑quality test sets. Potential matches are treated as leads only, not verified identifications.

Organization

Black Swan Technologies 501(c)(3)
Affiliate: EJ Audit Hub / Ile Aje LLC
Patent: Provisional Filed May 2026
Records: 3,889+ active reference encodings
Sources: FBI, NamUs, Interpol
Status: Research and Pilot Phase

Responsible Use

• Do not confront anyone based on a Guardian result
• Contact the listed hotline or appropriate official agency if you believe you have seen a missing person
• Potential matches are possible leads, not confirmed identifications
• Do not use Guardian to harass, track, or identify private individuals outside the intended public‑safety purpose

Research Independence

Guardian research and evaluation activities are conducted independently of law enforcement operations. Match notifications are possible leads, not identifications. All determinations of identity must be made by law enforcement or the appropriate official agency.

Guardian uses authorized public‑source missing person and wanted person records and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any law enforcement agency.

Privacy Architecture

Zero image retention. Every submitted photo is permanently deleted after comparison. No biometric templates or facial encodings are stored from queries. Our database contains only one‑way vectors from publicly available reference photos.

• No user accounts or registration required
• No scanned photos stored after processing
• No query face encodings retained
• No face database built from user scans
• No device tracking or fingerprinting
• No exact GPS tracking
• Zero personally identifiable information in scan logs
• Tip submission disabled until formal partner protocols are established