Clearview AI

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Clearview AI Inc.

logo
legal form Corporation
Seat United States
management Hoan Ton-That
Branch Image recognition
Website https://clearview.ai

Clearview AI is a US-based start-up that deals with the help of very large amounts of image data and machine learning to the face recognition has specialized in computer systems. It is registered in the commercial register and is based in New York City . The abbreviation "AI" stands for the English-language expression for artificial intelligence ("Artificial Intelligence").

The company has about three billion portraits of people from sources in the Internet such as Facebook or YouTube through screen scraping collected. The algorithms used should be supervised , ethical and impartial in order to guarantee humanity .

The image analysis performed by Clearview AI is made available to approximately 600 customers, mostly law enforcement agencies in the United States. Mainly to identify people who have committed crimes. The software is also used in Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. More than 200 companies and organizations worldwide have purchased Clearview licenses or tried the software for free.

The American investor of German origin Peter Thiel supported the project financially in 2017.

criticism

US Senator Ron Wyden has called for US citizens to know if their image data will be used for the company's facial recognition.

In the United States, a fire insurance company and several individuals have filed a total of seven lawsuits against the company's practices. The American civil rights union ACLU filed a lawsuit against Clearview AI in a US federal court in May 2020 for exceeding ethical limits.

According to Clearview AI, only authorized agencies are allowed to use the software. However, official customers use the app not only for professional purposes, but also for private purposes, for example to show the functions at dates or parties. In addition, exclusive entrepreneurs can use the app for test purposes or for private reasons.

Distribution and reach

According to research by the New York Times in January 2020, Clearview's software, which accesses a database of three billion photos, is able to recognize people by facial features within a few seconds.

Contrary to earlier claims by Clearview, after press research in February 2020, the company's databases were also made available to major American retail chains for payment. According to their own statements, they are looking for known shoplifters and fraudsters.

In Europe, various security agencies were among the users of Clearview. Based on leaked customer lists, security authorities in Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Ireland , Italy , Latvia , Lithuania , the Netherlands , Norway , Portugal , Serbia , Slovenia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland and the United Kingdom became Clearview AI users at the beginning of February 2020 identified.

The Interpol police authority was in the files with over 320 search queries. However, there is no business relationship between Interpol and Clearview AI, a free 30-day trial account was used instead.

In May 2020, Clearview AI announced that the app would only be available to security authorities and that all other contracts, such as banks and schools, that were on the customer list will be terminated. It will also terminate all Illinois contracts and stop using photos or data from Illinois or Chicago related websites .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Clearview AI contact details . accessed on January 20, 2020
  2. ↑ a b c d DER SPIEGEL: Face recognition: Clearview's customers are banks, schools and European authorities - DER SPIEGEL - Netzwelt. Retrieved February 28, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Kashmir Hill. The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It In: New York Times, January 18, 2020
  4. ↑ a b Stefan Krempl: Face recognition: proceed with the copyright against Clearview. In: heise online , April 10, 2020, accessed on April 15, 2020.
  5. ↑ Clearview AI , PitchBook, accessed January 20, 2020
  6. ↑ a b c Huge photo database shows how dangerous facial recognition is , The time of January 19, 2020, accessed on January 20, 2020
  7. ↑ Nightmare Scenario: ACLU Sues Clearview for Illegal Face Recognition. May 31, 2020, accessed June 1, 2020 .
  8. ^ Clearview Is Not A Consumer Application. Retrieved June 9, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Clearview AI: Customers use face recognition as a party gag - Golem.de. Accessed June 9, 2020 (German).
  10. ↑ Tomislav Bezmalinovic: Clearview: Face recognition served as a high-tech toy for the super-rich. In: MIXED | News about VR, AR and AI. Accessed June 9, 2020 (German).
  11. ^ Kashmir Hill: Before Clearview Became a Police Tool, It Was a Secret Plaything of the Rich . In: The New York Times . March 5, 2020, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed June 9, 2020]).
  12. ↑ Jannis Brühl and Simon Hurtz: An app shocked America. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 20, 2020 ( SZPlus )
  13. ↑ a b c Ryan Mac, Caroline Haskins, Logan McDonald: "Clearview's Facial Recognition App Has Been Used By The Justice Department, ICE, Macy's, Walmart, And The NBA" buzzfeednews.com of February 27, 2020
  14. ↑ Matthias Monroy: Clearview AI - What does Interpol use face recognition for? In: netzpolitik.org. March 9, 2020, accessed on June 9, 2020 (German).
  15. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Face recognition: Clearview's customers are banks, schools and European authorities - DER SPIEGEL - Netzwelt. Retrieved June 11, 2020 .
  16. ↑ a b Nick Statt: Clearview AI to stop selling controversial facial recognition app to private companies. May 7, 2020, accessed June 9, 2020 .
  17. ↑ a b Clearview AI Says It Will No Longer Provide Facial Recognition To Private Companies. Retrieved June 9, 2020 .