The business says that Clearview AI has created the biggest face recognition database in the world by covertly scraping billions of faceprints from internet images of individuals. Be cautious when sharing photographs online and unsubscribe from the Clearview AI database if you value your privacy.
What then is Clearview AI? Why ought you to care? Additionally, how can you remove your images from the Clearview AI database?
What Is Clearview AI?
An American business called Clearview AI provides its customers with facial recognition technologies. The public images of the individual you supply will be shown to you by Clearview AI. Links to the places those public photographs appeared will also be included.
The following services are offered by the business, according to the Clearview AI website:
According to a BuzzFeed article, clients of Clearview AI include the Justice Department, Walmart, FBI, Homeland Security, and more.
According to the creator of Clearview AI, who spoke to the BBC, the business has conducted one million searches for the US police agency. The business asserts that their database has more than 30 billion photographs. It may include around four photos of each individual on the planet, taking into account the estimated 8 billion people who now live there.
Controversies Around Clearview AI
According to The New York Times, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other organisations in the United States sued Clearview AI in 2020 for allegedly breaking an Illinois statute governing digital privacy. As part of the lawsuit settlement, Clearview AI consented to solely sell its face recognition software to law enforcement organisations.
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), according to a BBC article, determined that the corporation had violated UK data protection regulations and ordered it to stop using and destroy the personal information of UK individuals. The business was fined more than £7.5 million by the UK's privacy authority.
According to TechCrunch, the Italian data protection authority ordered Clearview AI to erase the facial biometric data of Italian people and prohibited it from processing their faceprints in the future. Additionally, Clearview was fined €20 million by the data protection authority for breaking EU legislation.
Bleeping Computer also reported that Clearview AI received a €20 million punishment from the French government for improperly gathering and processing French persons' faceprints. According to The Record, Clearview AI was also fined €20 million by the Greek privacy authorities for breaking several provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe.
Why You Should Be Worried About Clearview AI
You should be sceptical of Clearview AI's contentious face recognition algorithm even if all the claims of privacy law violations aren't enough to make you worry.
Invasion of Privacy
There are significant arguments in favour of making privacy a basic right. Users may recognise persons without their knowledge or agreement thanks to Clearview AI's face recognition technology. Because people might not be aware that their internet images are being scraped and added to the world faceprint database, this is a violation of privacy.
Surveillance
Clearview AI poses a serious risk to civil rights and freedom of speech. Without their awareness, enforcement authorities and other organisations in oppressive regimes can use it to track down activists and members of civil society.
Misidentification
Certain groups, particularly persons of colour, are frequently mismatched by facial recognition technologies. Enforcement organisations employing Clearview AI to track down criminals may therefore receive erroneous matches, which might put innocent individuals through excessive hardship.
Risk of Cybersecurity
The firm database has previously been breached. You have to be concerned that Clearview AI may be exposed to numerous cybersecurity assaults given that it claims to have over 30 billion faceprints in its database.
To put it briefly, Clearview AI poses a serious risk to your privacy. Users of this contentious technology have the ability to identify people walking down the street at random, people protesting discriminatory legislation, and campaigners standing up for what they believe in. It is easily exploitable by repressive governments.
