Face-recognition technology poses a lot of complicated issues for society and the consumers it affects.
Entering 2020, few had ever heard of facial recognition startup Clearview AI. Several weeks and a series of negative news cycles later, the company has drawn the ire of lawmakers and privacy activists who fear that it might, in the words of The New York Times, “end privacy as we know it.”
So, who is Clearview AI? How has it pushed the envelope on a technology that’s been around since the 1960s? And why are its technology breakthroughs so dangerous for the general consumer?
Here’s a quick backgrounder. The secretive New York startup developed a groundbreaking face-recognition system that produces more accurate matches from more angles than previous iterations. The company sells the technology to law enforcement and other businesses. What really distinguishes the application is its ability to match photos of unidentified people with images Clearview AI has scraped from the internet. The 3 billion-image database includes pictures people post to Facebook, Twitter and other online sites.
It’s easy to see the benefit. The company touts its technology’s success hunting down murderers, child molesters and other criminals, using more precise vectors and a wider pool of images.
But it’s just as easy to see the potential downsides.
Privacy supporters argue that widespread use of facial recognition technology breaks unwritten rules regarding technology and privacy. For years, tech companies capable of developing face recognition apps, including Google, have held back for ethical reasons. Large cities such as San Francisco refuse to use it. Clearv ..
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