Hotel Images: A Powerful Tool Against Human Trafficking

Abby Stylianou built an app that asks its users to upload photos of hotel rooms they stay in when they travel. It may seem like a simple act, but the resulting database of hotel room images helps Stylianou and her colleagues assist victims of human trafficking.

Traffickers often post photos of their victims in hotel rooms as online advertisements, evidence that can be used to find the victims and prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes. But to use this evidence, analysts must be able to determine…