A New York Times investigation by Kashmir Hill revealed that little-known start-up Clearview AI had built a facial recognition tool from more than three billion images scraped from social media and other websites. The tool was being used by hundreds of law enforcement agencies.
What happened
- Users could upload a photo of a person and receive matching public images along with links to where they appeared.
- Clearview said more than 600 law enforcement agencies had used the service.
- Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Venmo sent cease-and-desist letters over the scraping.
- Regulators in several countries, including Australia, Canada, France, and Italy, later found the company had breached privacy laws.
Why it mattered
The revelations brought mass facial recognition into the mainstream debate and showed how public photos could be turned into a biometric database without consent. It also led to lawsuits in the US and to several police forces reviewing or halting their use of the tool.
Lessons for organisations
Carry out data protection impact assessments before adopting biometric or AI tools, check suppliers’ data sources, and limit how much personal imagery your organisation publishes. Be transparent with individuals about any use of facial recognition.
Source: Axios
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