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Every day, users upload billions of images across social media platforms. In doing so, they advertise brands they enjoy, whether it’s a logo on a jacket or the soft drink they’re holding. Mantii, by advertising platform GumGum, is helping brands access these publically available user-generated content.

Mantii uses image recognition to monitor branded content on social media. Data is gathered in real-time, enabling brands to monitor product launches or viral content. The software also integrates facial recognition to determine the emotional contexts products appear in, as well as demographic and geographic metadata. Brands can also search through competitors’ social pages, and see how similar products match up to their own. If an individual is providing great exposure, brands will be able to contact them directly, offering rewards or incentives for their efforts. Alongside Mantii are several other startups providing similarly crowdsourced content: Ditto and Curulate both collate images of products for brands across social media channels.

However, as we have seen in the past, giants such as Instagram have controversially sold users’ image to brands without their consent. While some services allow users to opt-in to brand engagement, most will be unnerved to know that their photos are being analyzed by big businesses in this way. Could the models be adapted to give consumers better control in their privacy?