Clearview AI has been faced with a massive lawsuit that goes against the company's recent venture of creating one of the world's largest databases for human faces, as immigrant-rights groups argue it to be "invasive." Human faces stored in the database are claimed to have no consent from their rightful owners says the lawsuit claims.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - MAY 14: A video surveillance camera hangs from the side of a building on May 14, 2019 in San Francisco, California. San Francisco could be the first city in the United States to ban facial recognition technology by police and city agencies. The San Francisco board of supervisors will vote on the measure today.
The artificial intelligence company has been assisting law enforcement in the recent attack in the US Capitol, which identified the identities and whereabouts of some perpetrators, leading to their arrest. While the initial aim and purpose of Clearview's technology is to help society and make it safer, the groups have argued that they feel "less safe" with the use of their photos from social media.
Clearview has taken photos of people across the world, pooled them into a database, and compiled them within the company's files which were taken from social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more. The lawsuit claims that these photos and identities were taken without consent and that the company has stakes over a person's privacy.
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Clearview AI Lawsuit: Invasion of Privacy and Unsafe
People walk past a poster simulating facial recognition software at the Security China 2018 exhibition on public safety and security in Beijing, China October 24, 2018.
According to CBS News' report, Clearview AI having stakes over human identity and presence on social media makes these immigrant-rights groups from California feel less safe with their online personas. Moreover, the groups argue that the move by Clearview was a clear invasion of their privacy and that it gives away human identity to interested parties.
Currently, Clearview AI has ties to various "government, government agencies, and private entities" which has access to the world's largest database for human faces and identities. With the wrong hands, this information can potentially be dangerous and risky for its user, especially as privacy and security are what's at stake.
The company has been operating since 2017, and they have amassed a total of 3 billion photos from users of various social media platforms, and its database is larger than the FBI, says the claims. The company has more than 2,200 law enforcement agencies that have requested access to the database which is a powerful tool.
Clearview AI's Tech Can Identify a Person within Seconds
According to the lawsuit, Clearview AI's database can also pull any photo from the internet, especially if that person is a suspected figure, and use its technology to search the person on the internet. This could lead to the immediate identification of a specific person, and lead to their real-time locations when captured by any camera.
The company's technology sounds like it was taken from a highly-sophisticated spy movie that uses face tracking in catching the perpetrator as it strolls in public. Facial recognition and the artificial intelligence behind it would help in properly detecting the rightful identity of the person, at any time and place, making this a potentially helpful or dangerous tool.
Related Article: American Civil Liberties Union Files Case Against Clearview AI for Violating Privacy
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Written by Isaiah Alonzo
