I'm only concerned about this on a personal level if the DMV, the State Dept (passport), and other government agencies who have my photos start allowing access to private companies like this one ... because I'm not stupid enough to have uploaded my photo to any social- or antisocial media sites.
27
Every photo is copyright and owned by either, depending upon Terms of Service, the site they stole it from, the person in the photo, or both. Every violation is individual. Statutory damages are $750 to $30,000 per face. And, of yeah, going by the Napster precedent the personal funds of the investors is up for grabs due to this being a willful violation. What an irony that Peter Thiel could end up broke due to a well-deserved mega-verdict that springs from a privacy violation; Gawker's Nick Denton would be in the front row of the courtroom laughing.
70
I would stay away from Catsimatidis for many reasons.
I love the way everyone in the story is totally oblivious to the implications of this device. They're not the only ones who have it. Do they even realize that other people on using it on them?
28
What could possibly go wrong?
45
If I were the date of his daughter, I would politely part ways and run for the hills. Creepy.
74
He truly is a Big Brother.
22
Great, more rich people doing creepy invasive things under the radar. Just what this country needs. Sigh.
73
If we aren't going to legislate against this and actually enforce the law with the wealthy we can't be surprised it's happening.
19
I read the original story about this app in the NYTimes. For me it’s pretty obvious that this „identity theft“ was/is allowed by Facebook.
The story behind is simple: Peter Thiel is founding VC of Facebook and board member and he is founding VC of Clearview. Whatever Clearview does and did Thiel knows, and whatever Thiel knows Zuckerberg and Sandberg know.
Just a despicable irresponsible crew. All of them.
394
@Oliver. This IS identity theft,when you think about it. We did not give permission for anyone to scrape our photos, to film us, etc. Just because we walk into Best Buy doesn’t mean we agree to be spied on, or tracked, or listened to, or targeted for ads, etc. What happened to our Rights? What worries me is the Supreme Court will never stand up to these vultures in our favor, because they’ve been purchased and paid for.
62
@Oliver Thiel also launched Palentir https://www.palantir.com/ Big Data analytics for National Security customers...
18
Wow look at that giant man. He's larger than life, truly.
14
Tinyeye has been around for ages and it does picture look ups. Of course it doesn't scrape sides to get additional content.
@Mark And it's utterly useless and never finds a match for anyone except the most well know celebrities. It literally has a Tin Eye ;)
6
And are rich people collecting DNA samples off of our drinks?
14
So, at this point, we can all agree that Silicon Valley tech bro culture is utterly devoid of ethics or a moral compass, right?
50
@Paul D It always was.
22
The remedy is simple. Anyone connected to Clearview in any way is required to put their entire personal profile online, publicly available. That's the price for getting rich off everyone else's personal data. No ifs. No ands. No buts. You scrape, you post - everything about you. Then you are free to get rich. And we are free to know.
19
Sue these people and force them to prove where every picture came from and that they have written consent to have and to use the picture. Every picture.
36
According to a recent survey, 97.6% of criminals were against surveillance cameras and the use of AI to identify perpetrators of crimes.
Similarly, in the late 1800s and early 1900s surveys of criminals were undertaken and 96.8% of them were against the use of fingerprints to identify perpetrators of crimes.
I am pretty sure a huge majority of law-abiding Americans support any techniques, including fingerprints, DNA testing and surveillance cameras, that will make their lives safer, reduce crimes and apprehend criminals.
The only people who have to fear surveillance cameras, DNA testing and AI identification are those involved in illicit behavior.
5
@Mon Ray really?
19
@Mon Ray Mr Thiel, commenting on articles about yourself rather than suing? A step up!
12
@Mon Ray
Have you heard of the 4th Amendment?
There are places where people expect to be under constant surveillance. We call them prisons.
37
Instead of China-bashing, Americans should just look into the mirror at themselves. Camera surveillance & AI facial recognition are everywhere.
12
The company is LYING about how their software is being used - making them very untrustworthy. A company like that should not be passing security clearances and having government contracts.
18
"After the couple sat down at another table, Mr. Catsimatidis asked a waiter to go over and take a photo."
A good waiter, and restaurant manager, would have automatically refused. No matter who made the request.
Clearly this Cipriani has some work to do.
31
@Yaj .... Billionaire vs. wait staff? Do you really have to guess at the response of the restaurant manager and waiter who probably really need their jobs....
26
@Yaj Have you even even heard of Cipriani? The only reason the place still exists is because it bends over backwards for the rich idiots who would pay $50 for a bad Caesar salad.
20
I am not sure why readers find this story provocative. This technology is simply the latest, and logical, progression of organizing publicly available information, which is absolutely legal. Clearview is not surreptitiously photographing individuals, hacking databases or obtaining photographs form non public sources. Rather, it is collecting photographs from the public domain and using an algorithm to search the data base. It is no different than Google searching publicly available web information.
11
@Christopher Rillo The difference is that Google and Facebook definitely have both the ML experts and data to do this, but chose not to because of the ethical privacy implications.
4
@Christopher Rillo Well, not really. Most of the sites that Clearview scraped in order to make this possible say that such a use violates their TOS. Assuming that the TOS are something you agree to for any use of the site, and that they constitute a contract -- which they probably do -- Clearview is then in breach.
23
Here in Minnesota there are a few billionaire types where it's almost impossible to apply for a job from them. It took me awhile to figure out the scam, but it seems they're using a dynamic web server, which decides whether to deliver a working or a broken web page based upon my personal information.
With the exception of the billionaire crowd, all of these jobs seem to be government funded (usu. Defense contractors). I'm only guessing, but they seem to be the same companies making $$$ off the cyberwar. It’s a fairly simple trick to do with a server side dynamic web page, just modify the page returned by the server based upon log in criteria. It’s a way to influence an application based upon information in a database. The Government prohibits this activity on the basis of race, gender, political affiliation and so on, but they’re obviously not enforcing it. Everybody looks the other way, and then people like me can't ever get a job.
It happened to me again this morning. I applied for a job, and the website first ask me to upload my resume. Once I did, the site returned a nice form all filled out with my personal information. Then it locked up. I tried two jobs from the same company (a new local company I've never heard of before), and neither one works. Oh, and the job postings look almost identical to those posted by General Dynamics in Bloomington, MN.
14
@W
I don't doubt that your prospective employers are checking your personal history when you apply for a job - but they certainly wouldn't intentionally lock up a web page - it would allow you to enter and record all your info and flag you as unemployable.
What you are experiencing is bad web design.
Even if it DOES lock up after doing a check - it's still bad web design.
That's not to say that the connected and very rich (individuals as well as companies) have access to much more private info than the rest of us - the article makes that clear. If I have that app in my pocket, I'm gonna check on my daughter's date too.
Mortgage, loan, and insurance companies do it all the time.
3
“People were stealing our Häagen-Dazs. It was a big problem". Yeah, we need everyone's face in a searchable database so this billionaire doesn't have the "problem" of people stealing a $3 pint of ice cream.
62
@Jeff Hersk In NYC, Haagen-Dazs is at least $9. So, you know, it's totally necessary.
17
@Jeff Hersk
Maybe they were reselling it on the black market before it melted - or perhaps it's just a summer problem?
11
@Jeff Hersk
Do you realize what the profit margins are in retail grocery!? A record year might be 2%. With those margins you have to sell a LOT more product to make up for even a small amount of theft.
So basically this technology is being used by law enforcement and a small group of plutocrats and their parasitic offspring for diversion and other personal purposes. We may not yet be where China is with this technology but it's pretty obvious it's only a matter of time.
37
@Innocent Bystander Cannot understand why you think we are any better off than the people of China in this respect.
3
@Innocent Bystander
Yes - we are all Uighurs !!!
6
This is one way the ‘owners’ control people they can buy and sell, the ones without power or money.
13
Unless you live in one of three states with laws requiring prior written consent before your biometric information is taken, there's nothing you can do to combat this conduct. And only one state allows the victim to sue. The other two states only permit the state's attorney general to sue violators. Despite the laws on the books, guess how many enforcement actions those two states attorneys' general have brought to protect their citizens? None.
24
@DPM Which 3 states have laws requiring your written consent for biometric information? Which states exactly don’t allow you to sue? Which state does allow suing? I live in NJ where my AG issued a moratorium on this app. Not sure exactly how they’d enforce that though.
3
@Megan Illinois, Texas, and Washington have biometric privacy statutes, with only Illinois allowing private suits.
7
@DPM
Quite right - but how would we even know it used our images and personal info ??? We kinda have to discover the abuse before we could sue.
We populate the database whenever we apply for a student loan or mortgage or even make credit card purchases.
I think the only difference between this service and all those that collect our personal info is the photo recognition which is a quick search against existing data. Unfortunately, the camel is in the tent!
Spokeo, ZoomInfo, White Pages, PeopleSmart, Intelius, PeopleFinders, Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, Acxiom, Oracle, Innovis, and KBM to name just a few.
2
Clearview posted a "code of conduct"? ARE YOU SERIOUS?
Look around there is no longer any such thing as a code of conduct. Not by our political leaders, our neighbors, anyone. When laws and norms become meaningless to half the population a "code of conduct" is a joke. This company needs to face a backlash worse than anything Harvey Weinstein has experienced.
46
This technology could be a game changer. If I were on death row the technology could be used to prove my innocence or futher incrimination. I bet photoshopped files are pulled in as part of the sample. Bet the CIA has an equal program. Federal legislation is needed as soon as possible.
9
Nicholas Cassimatis-- the guy who says he asks permission to use it as a parlor game. John Catsimatidis— the man who used it on his daughter's date without asking permission. Not the same person.
7
The real meaning of the 'digital divide' is not who has access to the internet. The real meaning is who can afford to control world's information.
On 7 Nov 2008 on was working as an apartment house maintenance technician for a company called Dominium Management, when my boss told me to get my fingerprints taken at the local police station, and then to give her the fingerprint card for an 'FBI Background Check'. The whole thing seemed kind of weird to me (none of the other six techs had to do it), but then she produced a 'background check' from: "RHR Information Services, 10505 Wayzata Blvd., Suite 200, Minnetonka, MN 55305"
From what I could gather, RHR had given my employer a background check that had incorrect information on it. Furthermore, it was kind of weird that my employer demanded the original copy of the fingerprint card, and didn't offer me any way to challenge the obviously bad information. The whole think didn't pass the smell test (and didn't meet the requirements in the Federal statutes), so I refused, and I was promptly fired for "Violation of policy & not re-hireable”.
As it turns out, it appears that RHR had given my employer false information in what appears to be an identity theft/invention rights swindle. Furthermore, nobody at the police seemed to care that somebody was using the FBI background check system in pursuit of a crime.
The moral of the story: if you have enough money you can do just about anything you want with information technology.
29
Everyone in the corporate media (including multiple Times reporters) that cheered on the demise of Gawker through the awfulness of Peter Thiel deserves to be fired and not allowed to comment publicly on any matters for a period of five years.
2
Do all rich people lie with such ease? Is there a disappearing moral code as the zeros increase on your worth?
20
@KatyBee
They don't have to lie... they just rationalize. The consequences for telling the truth are insignificant. It's the rest of us who lie, given the right questions.
6
@KatyBee
Read the book “Tangled Webs”.
This will turn out to be illegal and I will be happy to get my class action payout
7
@M. Callahan Do you mean pay for an arbitration lawyer?
1
Put Clearview out of business for their use in invasion of privacy while slapping the wrists of the private abusers very hard.
6
Ugh. Creepy behavior.
7
Recently, I was at a security training conference with Appellate Judges, Elected Officials, Law Enforcement and Security Experts.
After the conference, I received my certification!
What this article talks about, including the app "Clearview" is nothing compared to what can be done!
1: Clearview is not the only tool out there. I have access to three others!
2: Over 3,000 Android Apps are created each day with malware and there are over 470,000 bogus apps as I type. The ones that claim to clean your phone are the worst, iPhone is a bit safer - but not by much!
3: Send me a photo of your junk from iPhone or Android and I will find you!
4: Your phone can be turned on at anytime.
5: Your phone can be pinged at anytime.
6: I can call you with a male or female voice with a false caller ID and fake number that you can call back. I can do the same with email and text!
7: Current laws will be changed to make it easier to do this and more!
8: What Snowden talked about was only the tip of the iceberg!
9: IC CNCI isn't something that our Government wants to talk about - because it isn't that much different from China!
10: What I've mentioned isn't the only things going on or can be done!
Based on training, certifications, experience and personal knowledge, I would say to keep believing in your false illusions of safety, privacy and security. Vote for change in the false belief that it will get better. If you think things will be better in 10 years - fantasy!
13
@The Critic Yup My son as part of his grad degree studies hacked webcams. It's his job as a cybersec expert now. Nothing is safe unless the regulations are so changed as to severely punish the surveillance ( amazon,google etc) industry and the monied class,
and that is why we need someone like Bernie.
7
Recently, I was at a security training conference with Appellate Judges, Elected Officials, Law Enforcement and Security Experts.
After the conference, I received my certification!
What this article talks about, including the app "Clearview" is nothing compared to what can be done!
1: Clearview is not the only tool out there. I have access to three others!
2: Over 3,000 Android Apps are created each day with malware and there are over 470,000 bogus apps as I type. The ones that claim to clean your phone are the worst, iPhone is a bit safer - but not by much!
3: Send me a photo of your junk from iPhone or Android and I will find you!
4: Your phone can be turned on at any time.
5: Your phone can be pinged at any time.
6: I can call you with a male or female voice with a false caller ID and fake number that you can call back. I can do the same with email and text!
7: Current laws will be changed to make it easier to do this and more!
8: IC CNCI isn't something that our Government wants to talk about - because it isn't that much different from China!
9: What I've mentioned isn't the only things going on or can be done!
10: What Snowden talked about was only the tip of the iceberg!
Based on training, certifications, experience and personal knowledge, I would say to keep believing in your false illusions of safety, privacy and security. Vote for change in the false belief that it will get better. If you think things will be better in 10 years - fantasy!
5
That’s a real person? Really?
1
@J haha I get your drift
1
Note to self: never, EVER buy at a Gristedes! I'd end up funding this creep, his favorite surveillance "app", and his apparent pursuit of the world's ugliest male appearance.
18
Well, you don't need an app to know just how repugnant most rich people are. I find most of them to be colossal boors. The descent ones, the few and far between, are very humble about their wealth, and haven't let it go to their heads. The rest, like Donald Trump, have a god complex that can barely be tolerated, if at all.
So, who cares if a bunch of rich idiots have some stupid app that identifies people? It's doesn't make the fact that most of them have to pay for sex any less pitiable or pathetic.
17
I can hardly wait until the psycho stalkers start using this method to target and follow their prey.
6
@Deborah Klein
They already do. There are tons of cases of company and government employees checking up on their ex or latest fantasy - or their victim's latest beau.
Now potential investors have joined the club.
6
You only need to look at China to see where this is going. And it's not a good place to be. 1st it's just recognizing who you are, then it's who you associate with and where you go in the real world and online. Eventually, these data are used to reward, punish, and control what you can or want to do.
16
California has already passed a law that Californians can contact Clearview, get whatever profile information the company has "mined", and then opt out. The law further states that Clearview must comply and provide proof said person is no longer on their servers. We should all demand that it become national law. Big Tech needs to be regulated in a major way, and this Big Brother nightmare right out of Orwell's 1984 is just the recent and blatant example of how tech companies are violating the civil liberties of law abiding citizens. Enough is enough.
44
Think twice before you consent to have your photo, or your child’s photo, taken. Theme parks are now using AI. I was asked at the gate at Disney to consent to have my children’s photo taken. The rationale was the same: “we have a lot of problems with ticket fraud.” I was actually told that only a criminal would have something to hide.
245
@Alice
The favorite line of would-be authoritarians everywhere: you shouldn't mind if you have nothing to hide.
107
@Alice In a lot of situations you can't access basic services without consenting to a photo. I can't access my doctor's office without having my photo taken by the front desk. It's private property, and they require a photo + ID to access the building.
17
@Camilla you can’t even have a bank account without an ID which mean you basically can’t access anything that requires more than pocket change these days. Our govt people think they are so clever requiring all this to catch a few drug traffickers which could have been caught other ways! But this all will come back to bite us very hard. Timing is ticking!
19
It’s clearly appropriate for Congress to pass strict laws restricting this app. And while they’re at it they should pass a Right-To-Be-Forgotten law allowing Americans to scrub their presence from the internet.
424
@Jacob S And just HOW will THAT be enforced. It’s over folks!
13
@Jacob S
But the government is interested in this app themselves! And if not the US, China is developing the technology. We don’t want to keep up?
2
@Jacob S
If your data was scooped up and used to train a neural network, there is no feasible way to remove that data from the network without complete regeneration of the network itself.
Not saying you are wrong, just pointing out a technical difficulty.
In my mind, this shows that our data needs a lot more safeguards. Not only can Facebook, Google, etc. monetize your data, but now pretty much anyone can.
17
This comes on top of the millions of license plates located by the auto report industry trade association that has been crisscrossing the US documenting the tine and location of any plate in sight. Public roads, residential driveways viewable from the street, parking lots, etc.
6
Wait six months, some 15 year old will crank out the same app.
3
There seems to be much paranoia in the Comments. At least for the last decade, there have been cameras monitoring people in all grocery stores, at all intersections in most cities (owned by the DHS), and on major streets. If you did not explode with indignation until now, why take it on an face-recognition software ?
1
Again the dark side ruins a good thing.
3
Should protesters be allowed access to this technology to guard against subversives/instigators/infiltrators?
3
Disturbing, and inevitable.
2
Catsimatidis should be also sued for invasion of privacy.
9
Don't need facial recognition software to positively identify a privileged, entitled fat cat billionaire with a mug only his mother or a golddigger could love.
23
It would appear that this company is using people's likeness (photograph) for commercial purposes in violation of New York State law (Civil Rights Law §§ 50 and 51).
It certainly would be unlawful if a law making any personally identifiable data the property of the person so identified was law. Possession of such data would then be a crime (possesion of stolen property. See http://solutionsny.nyc/privacy.html.
14
Seems like a prime candidate for massive GDPR requests.
1
Can the plebeians play too?
2
This is an outrage.
5
Yuval Harari covers future technology in his book "Homo Deus", plus many other revelations that make this story look like children's play.
2
I'm sorry to say it out loud, but anyone who's not alarmed by Clearview's type of facial recognition technology is simple in the head.
10
That’s quite a face!
7
Who knew that Big Brother would be part artifical intelligence and social media tracking, watching, knowing and giving and selling your personal information to private and public strangers bent on exploitation and/or profit?
29
The end of privacy is the end of freedom. Now the police a business or just some random billionaires can track your every public move. What happens when a president with an authoritarian bent and a heightened sense of grievance gets his hands on this? The Chinese are already using this technology to round up Muslims into camps. This is a huge problem.
93
@Dave "What happens when a president with an authoritarian bent and a heightened sense of grievance gets his hands on this?"
Who could you possibly be referring to?
11
There is no privacy when in public.
People who post their information and pictures publicly shouldn't feel surveilled when people look at that information. Call me when this technology starts to be used to dig up confidential information like bank records or healthcare information. As long as it's only finding information that we choose ourselves to make public, I don't see the issue.
2
@Thad
What if someone, a friend, family member, or co-worker takes picture of you and posts it with a tag? Maybe they took it at an office party or meeting. What about that team photo someone posted from your high school yearbook?
8
@Thad If you have applied for a passport, license, loan or mortgage, we need to give you a call.
1
Google could have made this app like 10 years ago but chose not to. I hate this technology, but it might be time to open it to the general population instead of making it a tool for the rich to further line their pockets and extend the wealth gap. At the very least I could track down embarrassing pics of myself if they exist and try to get them removed.
I think this technology should have like 12 month period where people can only search for themselves first to at least try to eliminate bad pics or brace for the repercussions.
6
Gotta love Peter Thiels consistency. Its all about an invasion of privacy, just not his. Sadly, comeuppance for him is not going to ever happen, just a lot of hollow "soul searching" and self help-like approaches to everything in life.
Poor man thinks technology will supplant friends and old fashion human respect and inter-connectivity. Maybe its time to get off that biohacked diet and out of your immaturish hideaway bunker in New Zealand.
23
And yet there are people with prosopagnosia (an inability to recognize faces) whose lives would be greatly improved with some variation of this technology, but who will never be able to access it.
5
I have prosopagnosia. This app and others like it should be banned as fast as possible. You don’t remember somebody’s name, ASK.
29
As someone who is bad at facial recognition (I rely on voice, posture, and context and am easily thrown off by changes in hairstyle), some days it feels like everyone else is walking around with a version of this technology already in their brains. An app could level the playing field, rather than giving the rich another advantage.
1
@Becca
How would this work for you? You would ask the person if you take their photo on your phone the first time you meet them, and then refer to it the next time you see them? How would you know how to look them up on the app unless you asked for their name? Wouldn't it just be easier to ask for their name each time, explaining your problem?
Instead of the police posting a picture online and asking for help identifying a suspect caught on a surveillance camera, they will use this app.
And they will also use the app to identify people legally and peacefully protesting on public streets. Imagine you're protesting a suspected case of abuse by a cop and instantly they've got your name and social media profile.
Interesting.
47
scary, is more like it. the police already do surveillance of protesters. ever see those mobile towers at a protest? that's what those are. and I'm sure they take lots of pictures.
10
@Third.Coast
Unfortunately law enforcement is already doing this. They are the only ones who can use it. Isn't it time that we can fight back too? Like police on white supremacy websites?
7
Privacy rights are negotiated through law.
If people don't want some monstrous conglomeration of state and private power that outstrips any dystopian fever dream, probably you need to elect politicians that don't think the market is the natural order of humanity, and have a healthy skepticism of the state. I know, impossible to imagine.
35
“I tested it in surprising places: smoky bars, dark places. And it worked every time,” Mr. Cassimatis said. “It’s road testing. I do it as a hobby. I ask people for permission. It’s like a parlor trick. People like it.”
If you don't find this statement frightening, as much as the, at best, passive acceptance by many commenters here, of this, another element of the destruction of, forget privacy, our eventual liberty; you're party to the global Stockholm Syndrome imposed by the "Industrial Internet Government Complex" (period). Basically, we're doomed.
106
I predict Mr. Cassimatis’s “parlor trick” comment will find its way into a Hollywood movie script very soon.
5
This will only get worse until we add a Right to Digital Privacy/Anonymity amendment to the Constitution. Anything short of that will be useless.
53
Most of this tech is open source and online. The script it would take to generate a program like this is not beyond a group of mediocre software engineers. Clearview maybe the first but it definitely won't be the last. This will become free app soon and everyone will have it.
13
This is another example of how there are separate rules for the wealthy. This is a privacy violation, plain and simple. It makes me ill to think that the rich have access and the freedom to violate others right to privacy. Where does it end??
63
It's usually women who bear the brunt of accusations of helicopter parenting. But this? Mr Catsimatidis has taken this to a whole new level.
Yes, I'll bet that Ms Catsimatidis' date was "surprised". I would love to have been a fly on the wall to see how quickly that date ended.
36
Ok, grown children, when are you going to start suing your parents for posting pictures of you on Facebook, et. al., like, 10 years ago when you were 8 ? And, before that, when you were born, and at last week’s family gathering.
I see a whole new area of the law, invasion of privacy lawsuits against parents, grandparents, etc.
A disgruntled young adult will meet a hungry, contingency fee lawyer...and, a huge transfer of wealth will happen from the older violators to their children.
Just like when Anita Hill testified, and lawyers started getting contacted and suing: all it will take is one first case and then there will be an avalanche.
9
I wonder about this same thing. I never had social media accounts but would cringe when I heard about how many people I knew would recklessly and relentlessly post pictures of their minor children on Facebook and other sites. And now with surveillance and tracking devices, the violations against the privacy rights of children are staggering. It's a real hornet's nest that I highly doubt will stay dormant forever.
5
Creeper tech at its best. Catsimatidis acts like a Bond villain, surveilling ice cream thieves and daughter-dates.
56
“available only for law enforcement agencies and select security professionals to use as an investigative tool.”
Yeah and I have a super nice car to sell you. No? Maybe some beach front in Arizona?
23
My response is rage. How dare they? If ever an issue needs to go to the Supreme Court, it is this invasion and abuse of privacy protections, if not explicit laws. And I can't tolerate by the idiocy of people who run to new apps for the cool factor (Kutcher is always first in line and that isn't a compliment) and to show they have the one-up on others. Despicable. Unethical. Anti-democratic. Anti-intellectual. Boy toys in fully evil mode. Sorry, but a world without privacy is unthinkably diseased. And another rub? The billionaires can impose this on others and then build castles of non-entry.
"For now, it’s a power that Clearview controls and can give out as it pleases." Well, that's exactly what to take to court.
And there is NO WAY this stays in a few hands anyway, and I can probably make one phone call to an adept, non-American friend and see how difficult this is to find.
I hope that venture capitalist paid the bill and ran.
26
I think we should wait until we have a court that will support our right to privacy over business’s right to profit. It may be some time.
14
@PS Ok rage is too strong. It sounds a little crazy in today's usage. Closer to disgusted?
So many naive responses here regarding this matter. You no longer can hide under a rock. Big data/AI/tech is sophisticated at light years speed. Your digital foot print is so obvious to the algorithms to correlate and track every one of your posts, website visits, words typed, how long you stayed on a page, the movement of your mouse, etc. And read the fine print, it does the same for your digital connected friends and your address book because of the association to you. It also knows your physical location through app tracking. Don't get fooled when they say your name won't be associated with all this data; while this is initially true on the first tracking of the data, there are plenty of companies that will gladly triangulate multiple streams of data from various sources to identify you and then resale that database with all your personal information.
27
I don’t think anybody could forget that guys face...
27
"It’s like a parlor trick. People like it."
This person does not like it at all.
49
The most disturbing parts of this article are glaring, obvious, and discussed in a lot of other comments. As a New Yorker, a part of this article that I also find shocking is the fact that anyone ever made a billion dollars owning Gristedes, also known in my circles as Gross-tedes.
25
@BN I agree--the most disgusting, filthy stores I ever shopped in.
1
They should only have your data if they pay you for it.
13
@DC
You give it away for free on just about every social media site.
Remember, if you aren't paying for it, you are the product being sold.
3
A “ hobby “? A “ parlor trick”?
This man obviously has too much time on his hands .
10
I don't really see what is the problem here. Taking a picture of somebody in a public place, without his permission, identifying him, and obtaining information that is public is NOT illegal and definitely is not "spying". Spying means obtaining confidential information or conducting direct surveillance, none of which happened in the benign examples provided here. NYT, are you running out of issues worth fighting ?
4
To be in public spaces without having people I don't know researching my virtual identity is a privacy right I consider Very Important. I don't walk around handing out my biography to strangers, as there is no need for them to have that information. Do you? Am I going to have to wear a mask in public to protect my privacy?
18
@mynameisnotsusan
This is way different than what you describe. Not only can the app identify you but in addition using metadata (think of metadata as the address info on an envelope, not the actual letter inside) they can find out even more about you, like where you live, and from there where you go. Information technology classes need to be right up there with reading, writing, and 'rithmetic. This is that important.
5
@Syd
There is no such privacy right. There are privacy laws for protecting confidential information about you but there are no laws that prohibit anybody to investigate you. It all starts with that nothing stops me to take a picture of you in a public place and to ask questions about you or to search online for any info about you.
such an all seeing eye would only be “fair” if it were made available to all, as a webservice, not a particularly difficult task, technically speaking. i would consider it the mission of a white hat hacker to democratize this tech asap. that’s because it may be little use to ban it (which is the best option) because the institutions and individuals with the wealth and power to evade accountability will retain access. in the same way that the second amendment represents to some Americans a last resort equalizer between the ruled and the rulers, so might access to these technologies that threaten our basic rights and liberties.
5
How long before this technology is uploaded into traffic light and street cameras so you can be monitored and followed everywhere?
Big Brother is watching.
27
@Observer
And, because they have your address, they can mail you a fine ticket for some minor transgression. Cut that yellow light a little too close? Step into the street a second before the light went green? Maybe gazed into that jeweler's window a bit too long?
I keep expecting those flashing mph signs to take my picture and mail a ticket, when I go 36 in a 35 zone.
1
@Observer We have had red light and speed cameras here in Australia for well over twenty years. The penalty notice gets posted to the registered owner of the vehicle who either pays as the driver at the time and loses points on their licence or nominates someone as the driver. The recipient of the notice can look up the photos on line.
We are now getting cameras which spot mobile phone use.
3
So, there's obviously a market for tech to protect against such privacy violation online. Who's working on my personal data defender?
15
Seen comments who call this app illegal. But I think it is far from it. As stated, the app obtains data from publicly available sources - e.g. what you choose to put on your own social media accounts (ie a public page). It is basically a "google" for photos.
Currently, employers already do background checks on their employees by googling their names. This app allows for "googling" of an image, instead of a face.
So this is nothing illegal. Rather, if highlights a very pressing issue - the issue of privacy. Can we ever have privacy in this digital (unprivate) world? How can we better safeguard our own personal information? (e.g. privacy settings on FB and Insta pages)?
Perhaps, the debate should now move on to Privacy - what is its role in society today? Is it still relevant/important?
6
@Clement Lim it is morally reprehensible and ethically gray.
I can not be on social media at all and have never posed for a picture and still be found using their software. The fact the police state is using it and the rich receive it as a toy should have everyone worried.
18
This has not been a good day. Elizabeth Warren has just dropped out. Mike Bloomberg has succeeded in making sure there won’t be a soak-the-ultra-rich plank in the Democratic Party platform. We get to return to the centrist politics of the 1990s.
The rich are different in ways beyond the fact that they have more money. They think that the thousands of people who toil for them don’t matter and that they actually deserve their wealth. They ride in private jets, spewing carbon in the upper atmosphere and let the rest of us cook on the warming surface. They isolate and insulate themselves behind walls and gates, yet have the temerity to claim that their political contributions are really for the sake of freedom and liberty.
Now this.
They can spy on the rest of us with impunity. They get to use special resources to unlock our privacy, but stand on their toes on top of their high horses when the reverse is even suggested. (Where are those tax returns, Mr. Trump? Mr. Bloomberg?)
What else is out there that we don’t know about them?
93
As I travel Mexico and the US, security cameras are increasingly everywhere. In regards to the US I wonder about mass over reaction and of course the ever present opportunity for vendors of equipment to make money. I like that phrase "security professionals". Sure, you bet. Excuse my cynicism about all this.
9
Although this sort of app was inevitable, given the path of our technical evolution, it is the nearly uniform response of many of its first adopters (or “testers”) that I find most interesting. So many of them said things like “It’s fun”, “It’s amazing”, “People like it”. Hmm, yes, a party entertainment at first but one with an obvious risk, susceptible to corruption. But, hey, just like a lot of powerful tech (say, fire, metallurgy, AI), I suppose it’s up to society as a whole to develop the protocols necessary to deal with it in ways that promote the benefits and minimize the dangers. Else the surveillance state won’t be just a threat...
4
Another reason not to be on the grid. No Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram etc.
Unless these apps can access state driver’s license photos I’m invisible to private enterprise.
Recommended reading: The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks.
14
@winthropo muchacho you can exist off grid and still be susceptible to this software.
If you’ve been photographed knowingly or unknowingly you are at risk.
9
How does the indiscriminate collection of photos from the web NOT eventually violate copyright laws? Not every photo of people on the is in the public domain. This app is illegal and the person who created it knows that. Why do you think he gave it to rich people (who are above the law) and law enforcement (who are the law.)
29
Whether it’s the rich or the government, either having access are equally alarming. To pretend that the government can only do good and the rich do bad is a fallacy.
That being said, this app has been available and known about for years. It’s not all that secret. It was used very successfully in very high profile stories that all readers are familiar with. It’s proven so extremely effective that governments like Russia are already taking counter measures because of Clearviews abilities to implicate Russia in clandestine operations.
9
@Kevin : Sounds a lot like what the Chinese are doing to the Uighurs.
1
I’m not sure testing it on legislators would make a good measurement of the general accuracy. There are probably dozens if not hundreds as many photographs of these people on the web than there are of most other people.
6
@Michael McCollough if you read the previous article it easily identified The NY Times reporter researching the company.
It also found pictures of her she wasn’t aware having been taken. Then she was flagged, unsearchable and the law enforcement personal who searched her had their user permissions removed.
This company is nefarious.
1
@LH
I still say if you want to study how accurate this software is you need a sample more representative than 'legislators'.
1
However useful, and practical, to recognize and follow suspected criminals, 'facial recognition' is an awful tool if we, the public, want to keep a minimum of privacy. For now, just know that your every move may be controlled by 'those in the know' and 'the haves' (the rich and powerful, and officers of order [the rule of law] subservient to their whims). Dictatorships around the world (China, Turkey, the Philippines, Russia, Hong Kong, etc) are likely delighted with this new technology, absent ethics, and not driven by healthy regulation and public supervision.
28
Facial recognition doesn’t work well with dark skin people especially women. My iPhone shows me selfies of me and my son despite the fact he has a beard and I am a woman 40 years his senior.
1
"I get their permission," Mr. Cassimatis says. Desperately unlikely and in fact contradicted at the beginning of the article when he secretly scanned and searched his daughter's date. Clearly technology has far outpaced our regulations, and this is just the beginning of a two-tier world of information and privacy or lack thereof.
76
@Russell : it also makes me question if Mr. Cassimatis -- a billionaire who could afford to buy anything! -- really STOLE that software or they "just let him keep it". He is clearly not honest.
If he wants to investigate his daughter's dates....can't he afford a private detective?
2
@Russell Different person. Cassimatis versus Catsimatidis.
3
@Russell
The Times gotcha. Two different Greek surnames: billlionaire snoop Catsimatidis and “permission-asking“ Cassinatis. The rich and the police get access. Just like a police state. Time to get out the Groucho mask.
9
Rich guys, private security firms, cops....Terrifying really, makes a Hajib seem reasonable, or a being a Luditite.. just sayin....now where'd i put my groucho glasses....
29
This is what billionaires look like? Trump, Adleson, Kock brothers, Bezos, Catsimatidis, Zuckerberg?
Yikes.... I think I stay poor.
121
@John MD
If you Clearview Catsimatidis you’ll find that he also runs an interstellar trade organization from Tatooine. Who knew!
15
Further proof that if a technology exists it will be used, and in any way that benefits those with access. No matter what lofty promises are made and no matter what original intentions.
Perhaps someday new parents can get little balaclavas for their infants so they can protect their privacy from birth.
19
And, it's interesting to note that, the people who are so interested in Clearview are the same ones who are craving to be recognized.
5
@SethBarton Not Peter Thiel. Thiel operates on the principle that no one deserves privacy with the lone exception being Peter Thiel, who will sue you if you report anything about him. Someone with nothing to lose should see what he's up to in that New Zealand compound he bribed a government to let him buy.
51
Among the number of things that are extremely troubling about this, the note of Catsimatidis using this technology to simply identify the man going on a date with his adult daughter is just gross.
68
@Erin : I mean...he didn't even start with (say) ASKING HIS DAUGHTER "so, honey, please introduce me to your new friend" -- but he went straight for some illegal software that he STOLE!
6
I don't steal Haagen Dazs. I sure hope I don't look like someone who does.
23
I’m just surprised anyone is surprised. This is our future. No anonymity, for good and bad?
5
@Ak This app created by a wealthy tech bro former male model gives anonymity to those who can afford it (billionaires) and those with the power (the cops). You and everyone else? Forgetaboutit. Does that sound like something good?
4
I wouldn't consider a second date with Castamidis' daughter after that interaction. Cringe!
51
@ALLISON
"wouldn't consider a second date with Castamidis' daughter after that interaction. Cringe!"
Her date was a venture capitalist, same class as dad and probably had no problema with it.
3
@ALLISON A first date would be bad enough. She's an odious character. Wonder why her politically convenient marriage to Richard Nixon's grandson fell apart.
3
If she looks anything like him who in their right mind would consider a first date with her??
1
All I needed to see was Gristedes and Cipriani in the same sentence and I knew something terrible was about to follow.
33
Welcome to China, except for sale to the highest bidder...
16
This technology, along with social media and text messaging, has already destroyed the world as far as I am concerned. The coronavirus is much less scary than having to live in a world where people are looking at your entire history as you walk down the street and texting people instead of talking to them.
20
After reading this article and "The Rich Are Preparing for Coronavirus Differently" it seems that the dystopian science-fiction films and novels have become real.
72
@Brad Yeah, my mind goes to the movie Joker in which the angry masses of Gotham City don masks and carry signs reading "kill the rich" (more for socioeconomic reasons, but class struggle is class struggle). Is that our tomorrow?
2
At some point in the near future the government will mandate that every person carry with them at all times a device that monitors and records their every thought, location, and action and uploads it to a computer.
14
It makes no sense to fault this company for doing anything. Every single photo they use is one that YOU willingly, knowingly gave to a company that said that they were going to keep and use and sell it your photo however they'd like. Don't want random companies using your photos for random stuff? Don't give your photo to companies that say they're going to give your photos to random companies for random stuff. All of this outrage couldn't be more misplaced.
8
That’s not true, at all - that you willingly gave this information. Your data is always a subset of someone else’s data, meaning that when someone uploads their pictures, their phone contacts, etc - you get uploaded along with them. My mother-in-law’s social accounts are nothing but a bunch of photos of my children tagged and identified by name.
Facebook’s graph database is so sophisticated that they use contact uploads to build a shadow profile of people who have never even joined the platform, and who their friends and communities are.
116
@Jack M
So then you should ask your mother-in-law not to upload photos of you and your children. Tell her that she doesn't have permission to give them to Facebook. I've told all of my friends and family the same.
15
@Frank This is misleading. Clearview is being sued by a number of companies that said they did not give CV permission / licensing to use the photos on their platform. The cynical would say that they are suing b/c they want a cut of whatever CV is getting, but point is that CV didn't have legal permission to copy/distrubute/build from the photos.
6
It's time to eat the rich, man. Also, I'm sorry it too me so long to quit Facebook. Depressing stuff.
139
@Mike
I deleted all my social media accounts two weeks ago. That was very satisfying indeed....
6
Once upon a time, people picked up books, cracked them open, and enjoyed the use of time to discover another world.
Once upon a time, families made a purposeful welcoming surprise visit to their neighbors that had a ready made cake in event of "Company" arriving unexpectedly. The kids played outside.
Once upon a time, families loaded the car to drive to the Drive Thru movies. Together. To use the day Hod had given.
There was precious events going on back when 'Once upon a time' actually ment real Life.
We've lost a central realness to our so-called lives. The door has shut to th authenticity. Never have we forgotten that the door has shut because we have been falsified by the phantom kaleidoscope of technology. Technology has laughed as it placed blinders on our eyes, naked; pushed us into the eternal darkness. We foolishly follow anything now. Groping for identity.
What a cheap trade off and we do not know, our death walk has already begun.
24
@Mercedes
For now you still have some control over whether you want to open a real book, visit your neighbors, or bake a cake. The more people exercise these social rights outside of a computer the better they are at sticking. What I am not looking forward to is the AI of jobs. It’s a scary future where robots will replace humans that I’m not sure I want me or my children’s children want to be part of.
1
@Mercedes Hmmm ... the technology to print books was at one time criticised. The car that was driven is now decried as a planet-cooker. The movie the family watched? Also vilified at one time. I guess there is technology we like (the ones we grew up with) and the technology we fear (the new stuff?). The old days were not so great (especially if you were of colour, or agreed with communism. I am not saying I like this technology, only that it does no good to yearn for an idealised past. Meanwhile, let's work out some sensible regulation for this new technology.
2
@Joanna
Maybe there's a reason the birth rate has fallen.
2
It's someone's tech but it's our data that is used and process. Should these companies have free reign to do as they please without oversight? Seems like we need to come together through government to get a handle on all these digital developments that profit from our data.
30
@AI Especially when it is almost impossible to remove personal data online.
10
@Al
Agreed. Those of us who pay attention are gearing up to reinstate control over our government, come November 3.
1
It will be ironic that AI/technology will help people to be a better person, essentially what the Buddhist's call right living. No longer can one hide so easily, all is transparent and searchable. Hence the individual will have a greater sense of their thoughts and actions. True mindfulness.
5
That’s optimistic. That was probably the somewhat naive original ‘plan’ of social media. Why was it so easy to turn it into a cesspool of lies and manipulation for political and financial gain? Follow the money.
4
@Frank
You're really all right with having all your personal information, including bank accounts, open to everyone else? Good luck with that.
I was told by folks that went to China last year to bring their adopted daughters back to their country of origin that facial recognition was being used in public toilets. That to obtain toilet paper, they had to lean over the toilet bowl and have their face pictured. So expect that some enterprising firm in the US adopts a similar approach. Want something for free? Well, it isn't really free. Facebook, Google, even internet browsers in the 90's were given away for 'free', remember Netscape? There is always an angle. Think all these electrons are moving around on the internet for free? Think there is no cost to having access anywhere in the world to vast stores of information? Perhaps 1% of the world's energy is going into server farms/the cloud to support our need to have everything accessible on a computer in our pockets we call a phone.
13
@John Bishop This is a great idea for a government that wants to ensure that immigrants do not consume public goods. If immigrants can be denied entry based on proposed use of public services like education and healthcare, why not also on public toilet paper use? Why should the hardworking citizens of our country subsidize toilet paper use by people who haven't paid taxes? Or even subsidize those people who have paid lots in taxes, but aren't citizens?
(read the above with a healthy layer of sarcasm)
It seems as if technology like this will enable insular populism and ethnocentrism by making it easy to automatically discriminate against the "other". I'm saddened by what seems like the inevitability of it all.
2
@John Bishop
China is not the US, and we would presumably use our freedom to deny such a system, with the masses controlled by the wealthy. Some of us are alarmed because we see our country being taken over by those who would turn us into China. We are poised to take it back.
1
I don’t know. All this paranoia. When a doctor’s office asks me to fill out forms and one of those forms is asking who has permission to view my medical records.
In the space provided I write “anybody in the entire world” and sign my name.
P.S. Ice cream is loaded with sugar.
5
That (aka Big Brother) is why I don't post any pictures of myself!
6
@Eric i don't either. there are only a couple of photos of me that i've posted and they are mostly from childhood. so i sat here with an air of moral superiority until i realized that any random cctv camera in any store or public place i've been has an image of me. i don't know it could get to clearview, but it's there.
1
And then, there's the cameras used in mall directories in Canada, since disabled, so the mall owners say, which track people within the mall. They had built in unnamed facial recognition software.
Makes one wonder how we can self righteously claim that China is a surveillance country when the UK with cameras set up to thwart the IRA and shopping malls in Canada, of all places, track people.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/cadillac-fairview-mall-directory-facial-recognition-suspended-1.4774692
9
@Heather Inglis We all knew Canadians weren't really that polite... YOu all have been faking it for years. ;)
Yet another good reason to get off social media!!
50
This whole thing is so troubling. But the fact that that guy let’s his kids play with the technology “for fun” is infuriating.
65
The lead photo for this article is like a caricature. It looks like a cartoon figure of dissipation and corruption. How appropriate.
287
Very true. Thought the same thing.
22
@Ralph
Do you by any chance remember a hair band from the 80s called Warrant? They had an album called 'Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich' the cover of which featured an image of a guy who is an absolute dead ringer for Catsimatidis. Uncanny and so fitting.
17
@Ralph
Exactly correct. Meet your new surveillance overlord.
8
Awesome. Now I can be targeted by my facial features as well. The amount of data that can be captured just with my phone isn’t enough I suppose. And I can’t help but wonder how this tech trickles down as all tech seems to.
7
All those cartoons with a disheveled guy carrying a sign that reads "The End Is Near". How appropriate, and it keeps getting closer. Google, Facebook, AI, China, USA, the top 1% worldwide. It's already too late and has been for a long time. Money and politics have walked hand in hand for... forever. Technology keeps changing fast enough that more people are able to notice, if we choose and if we can, about the nefarious role the wealthy and powerful use against the majority of world citizens. We can fight back, or think we are, but who are we kidding. I may not have the answers, but the view is clear and it's not pretty. Money and Greed rule, and History keeps repeating.
19
To tech billionaires it is a fun parlor trick.
To hard working Americans out in "the wild", particularly those who have made a mistake, bad credit, arrest, it can be an indelible mark.
"BuzzFeed News has reported that two other entities, a labor union and a real estate firm, also ran trials with a surveillance system developed by Clearview to flag individuals they deemed risky. The publication also reported that Clearview’s software has been used by Best Buy, Macy’s, Kohl’s, the National Basketball Association and numerous other organizations."
This is dangerous and unjust. What entity has the power to stop the use and inescapable misuse of this app?
42
@Ann There isn’t one, of course. It is time to admit that and figure out how we can all live together with NO privacy whatsoever. Not at all sure how that can work, but we must fure it out.
9
So, let me get this straight... many readers on here would think nothing of the government providing health care, which ostensibly would be them holding your health records, and that does not raise fears of Big Brother.
But give them the power to scrap your social media profiles and internet photo history by using facial recognition, and this is now a freak out moment?
What if you never post photo's of yourself on Facebook or anywhere else? They can't find you.
I never "tag" my friends in my photos I post (which I rarely do anyway... my wife on our honeymoon 6 years ago was the last time, I think), and I never post photos of my kids, they own their digital likeness, not I.
My LinkedIn has a generic stock photo of me, as does Twitter and Facebook. This app would be mostly innocuous if used on me.
Now, if they had my entire medical history.... well, no thank you. I'm fine with leaving that outside the government control.
4
The key difference, government with legal and administrative safegaurds. To prevent and punish individuals from using our information for personal gain which is what this app does.
23
Tag or no tag you, or your friends, are identified by facial recognition technology.
17
@PB The government will not "provide health care" under any reasonable scenario. What a public system might do is provide health care INSURANCE, and negotiate with health care providers to lower prices. By cutting out the numerous middle men and capturing the profits of insurance companies, otherwise wasted, we "might" be able to deliver health outcomes as good as, say, Costa Rica, or Argentina, or Greece, instead of being 37th in health outcomes amongst 90 developed countries.
68
I love that Facebook et al tried to serve Clearview with a C&D.
"You can't take that! We stole it fair and square!"
82
Call me paranoid but this is where we are headed if we are not already there. Is this the type of life YOU want. NOT ME!!!
Big Brother is a fictional character and symbol in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, published in 1949. He is ostensibly the leader of Oceania, a totalitarian state wherein the ruling party Ingsoc wields total power "for its own sake" over the inhabitants.
29
Wait. He thinks that, because an individual’s internet trail says that he is a “venture capitalist,” that therefore that person is not a “charlatan”?
Is there an app for gullibility?
366
@T And that’s the problem. Well, one of them.
12
@T In a local theater play in San Francisco there was a line, "when the world ends there will only be cockroaches, rats, and venture capitalists".
14
@T : Umm...he wasn't really checking for guilt or scammers. He was checking to be sure his daughter was dating someone very rich -- suitable for the daughter of a billionaire!
14
Long live the patriarchy.
6
Available for law enforcement officials and rich people. Don't sound right for little people.
35
@Joe S
Maybe someday it will be a cheap phone app.
Many things start out expensive or exclusive then, for better or worse, become relatively cheap for the masses. Airbags in cars and AR-15s among them.
With software, any additional sales are pure profit so there will be a temptation for someone to eventually democratize the tech.
1
Very scary! Just think what it'll be used for!
9
“I ask people for permission...”
Uh, earlier in the article it said he clearly didn’t ask permission of his daughter’s date or people in his store.
119
@trblmkr The first person in the article and the last person are not the same. John Catsimatidis who spied on his daughter is the first person in the article. Nicholas Cassimatis who used it as a parlor trick is the person at the end of the article.
14
@trblmkr
Mr. Cassimatis asks for permission. He provided internal accuracy testing on the app as a personal favor.
Mr. Catsimatidis used it to identify his daughter's date, sans permission. He is a billionaire grocery store owner and investor in the start-up.
8
@Kelly Lucille
Thank you! Looks like 29 people (and counting) mad the same mistake!
3
What an incredible power for nefarious actors. Hyper-targeted real time scams for people posing as police or government agents. Ability to pick the most valuable target out of a crowd to hold for ransom. On-the-spot blackmailing will become a career.
This kind of tech needs to be looked at more as a weapon of war, not just a tool of law enforcement.
101
@Jack M
Good point.
Or on the spot kidnapping for ransom.
This is really dangerous stuff.
20
Congress needs to regulate this technology starting yesterday. It is frankly outrageous that such technology can exist and be used with no safeguards for privacy.
145
@logic It was planned this way, and was/is the easiest way for our government to build this database, via private enterprise. Even in a post 9/11 world, we were reluctant to let our government associate our names with our numbers, let alone surveil our credit card purchases, and our minute by minute geolocation. Internet freebies, and personal vanity gave it all away.
2
In other words, basically, this app gives people your name by looking at your face.
If a person — or potential employer, or your dad — has your name (or your dates name), then the information this facial recognition app scrapes fappears to be about the same as this app.
We will have the same expectation of privacy while walking down the street we do while surfing the net (with no incognito mode available).
I see the issue implications much more like Minority Report. Looking at a pair of shoes in a store window? A camera in the window is looking back at you. Now the shoes will follow you on every digital platform you touch. Perhaps before you look at a car, a credit check will be run the moment you walk in the door.
18
That already happens. My sister was looking at something uncommon in a chain retailer, picked it up and examined it, didn’t buy it, but bought something else and left. When she got back home ads for the uncommon item were all over her devices.
12
Clearview is a private company with shareholders. Its funders, owners and directors are in it for the money: whoever pays gets access.
54
So the app is available only to law enforcement, security personnel, and the super-rich who paid them enough for it. What remarkable stewardship of a technology they claim to understand the risks of.
188
All those worried about law enforcement using such tech should consider that criminals are likely using it, perhaps through their "real estate company" or other front.
30
If anyone still needs convincing that our beloved democracy is actually an oligarchy, look no further than this article. The line between the government and the wealthy is so thin, that it doesn’t appear to exist at all.
477
And here I thought our shared values of privacy were going to save us from these insanely tempting, inevitably-to-be abused technologies...
3
@A Petersen
According to a recent survey, 97.6% of criminals were against surveillance cameras and the use of AI to identify perpetrators of crimes.
Similarly, in the late 1800s and early 1900s surveys of criminals were undertaken and 96.8% of them were against the use of fingerprints to identify perpetrators of crimes.
I am pretty sure a huge majority of law-abiding Americans support any techniques, including fingerprints, DNA and surveillance cameras, that will make their lives safer, reduce crimes and apprehend criminals.
The only people who have to fear surveillance cameras and AI identification are those involved in illicit behavior.
2
@Mon Ray, Then by your logic you shouldn't mind a camera in your toilet stall, either. I, however, value privacy and dignity.
12
I can't help but feel that the New York Times continues to do Clearview AI's marketing for them. For the app to be able to effectively do what is claimed, it would need well beyond a 99% accuracy rate and there's no verification that they're anywhere close to that. The public should remain skeptical about this company's claims until they reveal some real evidence of their capabilities.
31
@Chris Bartle
Why would a private company (or a criminal trying to identify targets for kompromat or undercover law enforcement) need such accuracy?
They do not need to take findings to court and convince a jury and can
pay humans to verify matches of interest.
9
Seems accurate to me...
"The test consisted of submitting the faces of 834 federal and state legislators. Clearview’s algorithms accurately identified every one of the politicians."
7
@G Pecos. Yup, accurate identification of 800 middle-aged white men. Yeah, that’s reassuring! NOT. Have you not been paying attention to all the articles showing that programmer bias reveals itself in the algorithms? And that, for example, black women are often misidentified as men? But, of course, the rich would likely only care to identify other rich, white men, b/c they don’t want to actually know any of the powerless underclass — just to exclude and control them.
Most people won't care about this until they understand decisions about their jobs or relationships will be made behind their backs using data gleaned from these apps. It's not just your gpa anymore folks! It's your thoughts and opinions that will get you hired or fired.
217
@California
On some level, we have a choice of where to work.
If a company is spying on people excessively for reasons outside the scope of the job (obviously it wants security and a harassment-free workspace), maybe the best remedy is go work somewhere else.
1
@Alan Not really a solution if there are no alternative jobs available. And, Corporate Amerika is quick to fall in line, meaning this monitoring will become pervasive. Witness key stroke monitoring. AI and facial recognition is already being used in China to monitor, suppress, and punish freedom of thought, expression and association.
24
@Alan
So, your old employer feels an obligation to share your information with your new employer, who decides you're too dangerous to hire, without even informing you?
5