In an explosive article on BuzzFeed News, the organization obtained client lists of a New York-based startup Clearview AI, showing a staggering number of law enforcement officers as well as retail stores have implemented facial recognition technology tied to a vast database including local police departments, the FBI and Walmart.
“Government agents should not be running our faces against a shadily assembled database of billions of our photos in secret and with no safeguards against abuse,” Nathan Freed Wessler, a staff attorney with the ACLU, said to BuzzFeed News. “More fundamentally, that so many law and immigration enforcement agencies were hoodwinked into using this error-prone and privacy-invading technology peddled by a company that can’t even keep its client list secure further demonstrates why lawmakers must halt use of face recognition technology, as communities nationwide are demanding.”
“This is completely crazy,” Clare Garvie, a senior associate at the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law School, told BuzzFeed News. “Here’s why it’s concerning to me: There is no clear line between who is permitted access to this incredibly powerful and incredibly risky tool and who doesn’t have access. There is not a clear line between law enforcement and non-law enforcement.”
There are currently no federal laws regulating the use of facial recognition, though several elected officials have proposed bills, according to BuzzFeed News. States including Illinois have developed regulations on the corporate use of biometric data, and some cities have outright banned the technology. In that regulatory vacuum, Clearview has thrived, doling out free trials seemingly at will and encouraging law enforcement officers and officials to invite their colleagues and perform as many searches as possible.
The article goes on to say that Clearview AI told the Daily Beast that an intruder had “gained unauthorized access to its list” of customers. “Unfortunately, data breaches are part of life in the 21st century. Our servers were never accessed,” Ekeland told the Daily Beast. “We patched the flaw, and continue to work to strengthen our security.”
The explanation did not sit well with some lawmakers, including Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden.
“Shrugging and saying data breaches happen is cold comfort for Americans who could have their information spilled out to hackers without their consent or knowledge,” he told BuzzFeed News.
The company claims it has built unprecedented facial recognition trained on an ever-increasing database of more than 3 billion photos ripped from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and other websites.
Read the complete article on BuzzFeed News for the rest of this compelling investigative story.
Source: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/clearview-ai-fbi-ice-global-law-enforcement?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits
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