Clearview
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Clearview CEO claims company's database of scraped images is now 30 billion strong
Clearview AI, the controversial facial recognition software used by at least 3,100 law enforcement agencies across the US, has scrapped more than 30 billion images from social media platforms like Facebook.
NYPD must disclose facial recognition procedures deployed against Black Lives Matter protesters
The police department had rejected a FOIL request for documents regarding the use of facial recognition and other surveillance.
Clearview AI agrees to limit sales of facial recognition data in the US
Clearview AI has agreed to permanently stop selling its biometric database to private companies and individuals in the US as part of a landmark settlement with the ACLU.
Clearview AI fined £17 million for breaching UK data protection laws
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office has provisionally fined Clearview AI £17 million ($22.6 million) for breaching UK data protection laws.
Clearview AI's facial recognition tech comes under fire in Europe
Privacy groups in Europe have filed complaints against Clearview AI for allegedly breaking privacy laws by scraping billions of photos from social media sites.
Senators want to block government agencies from buying Clearview AI data
A bipartisan bill would also ban purchases of location data without a warrant.
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Thousands of US government agencies are using Clearview AI without approval
Buzzfeed News has published what it claims is a database of US agencies that have used the tool, and how many times they used it.
Clearview to rely on First Amendment to defend its face-tracking tech
The CEO has been banging this drum since the lawsuits starting rolling in.
Australia and the UK open joint investigation of Clearview AI
Australia and the UK open a joint investigation into Clearview AI.
Server screw-up exposes Clearview’s facial recognition AI software
learview AI is widely seen as a privacy nightmare by the public and even privacy-challenged tech giants like Google. Now, the company has shown that it can’t even take care of its own data, according to a report from TechCrunch. It managed to expose its source code to anyone with an internet connection due to a server misconfiguration, as spotted by a security researcher at the Dubai-based firm SpiderSilk.
San Diego police ban Clearview AI's facial recognition tool
The backlash to Clearview AI's facial recognition tool is extending beyond tech companies and civil liberties groups. San Diego's police department and district attorney's office have confirmed that they banned use of Clearview AI in recent weeks. However, that wasn't before they were used in free trials. Police Lieutenant Shawn Takeuchi said that two detectives used Clearview for investigating financial crimes in tandem with "partners in the banking industry," while the DA office's Steve Walker said that eight investigators tried the tech in cases that didn't lead to charges.
Clearview AI leak names businesses using its facial recognition database
One of the most vehement arguments against Clearview AI's practice of scraping billions of photos from millions of public websites to build its facial recognition database was that the company's data storage and security protocols were both untested and unregulated. On Wednesday, Clearview AI claimed that its facial recognition database was hacked, giving intruders access the the company's full client list, which Buzzfeed News has acquired.
Facial recognition startup Clearview AI says its full client list was stolen
You might expect a high-profile (and controversial) facial recognition startup like Clearview AI would have its data locked down, but it turns out it's just as vulnerable as almost any other company to malicious individuals. In a notification obtained by The Daily Beast, the company says a recent vulnerability allowed someone to gain "unauthorized access" to a list of all of its customers. Clearview works with approximately 600 law enforcement agencies across North America, including the Chicago Police Department.
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The intelligence coup of the century Greg Miller, The Washington Post This in-depth report tells the story of Crypto AG, a Switzerland-based company that achieved success for its code-making machines during World War II. The company eventually became a popular manufacturer of encryption machines for countries around the world in the decades that followed. Governments trusted that communications between diplomats, military and spies were being kept secret. What those nations didn't know was that Crypto AG as actually owned by the CIA -- originally in partnership with West German intelligence. What's more, the access allowed the two countries to to rig the tech so they could easily crack any code.
Why Clearview AI is a threat to us all
When London's Metropolitan Police Department announced its decision to adopt the controversial and intrusive ClearView AI surveillance system at the end of January, a global cacophony of protest erupted. Concerns, fear and trepidation surrounding facial recognition technologies, especially those like Clearview which can ID people in real-time, have been simmering for decades, but the Met's decision has finally caused public outrage to boil over. But how did we even get to the point where a relatively unknown startup managed to enact one of tentpoles of futuristic dystopia and begin marketing it to aspiring dictatorial regimes, all while earning the wrath of national governments and tech industry titans alike?
ACLU rejects Clearview AI's facial recognition accuracy claims
Clearview AI's facial recognition isn't just raising privacy issues -- there are also concerns over its accuracy claims. The ACLU has rejected Clearview's assertion that its technology is "100% accurate" based on the civil liberty group's methodology for testing Amazon's Rekognition, telling BuzzFeed News that the findings are "absurd on many levels" and amounted to "manufacturing endorsements." According to the ACLU, there are key differences that make Clearview's sales pitch misleading.
Facebook and Venmo demand Clearview AI stops scraping their data
Following Google and Twitter, Facebook has become the latest company to take legal action against controversial facial recognition startup Clearview AI. According to Buzzfeed News, the company sent a cease-and-desist letter to Clearview sometime this week, demanding that it stop taking data from Facebook and Instagram. "Scraping people's information violates our policies, which is why we've demanded that Clearview stop accessing or using information from Facebook or Instagram," a spokesperson for the company told Buzzfeed News.
Google tells facial recognition startup Clearview AI to stop scraping photos
Following Twitter, Google and YouTube have become the latest companies to send a cease-and-desist letter to Clearview AI, the startup behind a controversial facial recognition program that more than 600 police departments across North American use. Clearview came under scrutiny earlier this year when The New York Times showed that the company had been scraping billions of images on the internet to build its database of faces. Google has demanded Clearview stop scraping YouTube videos for its database, as well as delete any photos it has already collected.
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The secretive company that might end privacy as we know it Kashmir Hill, The New York Times Clearview is a startup that developed a facial recognition system that matches a photo of a person to publicly available images. Those can be from Facebook, YouTube or even Venmo. It's powerful technology, and law enforcement is using it to solve crimes like shoplifting, murder and child sexual exploitation. The code in Clearview's app references the ability to pair the software with AR glasses, giving the person wearing them the ability to identify whoever they see. And the company is monitoring who law enforcement is looking for, which makes an already massive privacy issue sound like something out of a dystopian novel.
