Clearview facial recognition: your privacy ends with this software

Clearview facial recognition is a new technology designed to help fight crime. The program has been heavily criticized

Clearview facial recognition – what the technology can do

Clearview AI is a facial recognition program that was developed to compare images with a huge database that the company behind it with the same name has already built up.

• Clearview has a database that is estimated to be three billion photos in size so far. These images are used to match faces and thus identify people
• The data was collected from the internet from publicly accessible platforms such as Instagram or Facebook and also company websites.
• According to the founders, the purpose of this data collection is to identify criminals and make it easier to track them down. The FBI, US Homeland Security and the police are particularly interested in this technology.

This is why the software is being criticized

The company Clearview, which was founded by Hoan Ton-That, has not made a particularly reputable impression so far. Both some American authorities and the EU are considering a ban on this technology.

• This technology has great potential for abuse. People can be stalked and no one knows what personal data is being processed apart from the images

• In addition, it is not known which authorities are using the software and for what purposes. It is also worrying that, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the company also works with private companies.

• The company is also developing glasses that are fed with data from the database. The wearer of the glasses would be able to determine the identity of any person on the street, provided it is available in the database. According to Hoan Ton-That, however, there are no plans to use the glasses.

• In addition, this collection of so much data is a violation of terms of use and data protection. According to the founder, however, it is legitimate, as many people would do this. In relation to Germany, this would contradict the General Data Protection Regulation

• Clearview is only a small company so far. The question here is how and whether the company can protect this huge database.

• In San Francisco, authorities are now prohibited from using this software. A corresponding ban is also being considered in the EU. Its use is to be banned here for a few years until more is known about the technology and the algorithm.