Clearview hack fuels debate over facial recognition
Summary
Clearview AI, the highly controversial startup at the centre of a row over the ethics of facial recognition technology, has prompted renewed and heated debate over its activities after admitting that its entire client database of more than 600 law enforcement agencies has been stolen. Its modus operandi is to sell access to this database to law enforcement agencies, with the goal of making it easier for police to identify suspects using its machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to compare photos. While their attorney rightly states that data breaches are a fact of life in modern society, the nature of Clearview AI’s business makes this type of attack particularly problematic,” said Mackey. He said the technology was too useful and convenient to deter widespread adoption, citing more mundane uses such as replacing swipe cards to enter office buildings, or even paying for things, which is becoming popular in China. Nevertheless, Carlsson said it was still important to evaluate facial recognition technology on the basis of ethics and efficacy, and on both counts Clearview scored low, having very clearly chosen a highly non-ethical means of building its database.