Discussion

• @nytimes @nytimes on x

  EXCLUSIVE: With a single photo, hundreds of law enforcement agencies in the U.S. can learn your name, where you live, and who you know. It will end your ability to walk down the street anonymously. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @kashhill Kashmir Hill on x

  The privacy paranoid among us have long worried that all of our online photos would be scraped to create a universal face recognition app. My friends, it happened and it's here: https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @nytimes @nytimes on x

  .@kashhill got to see first hand how it works. When police officers ran a photo of her through the app, they soon received calls from Clearview asking if they were talking to the media. Read her investigation: https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @mcwm Mike Murphy on x

  I think what struck me the most in this excellent piece is that Clearview AI just brazenly broke the terms of service of major social networks to build their database. What will be the repercussions be? Genie seems like it's out of the bottle now https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @craigsilverman Craig Silverman on x

  Peter Thiel is connected to this company, which appears to violate Facebook's TOS. Thiel sits on FB's board. We reported a few weeks ago that FB is aggressively suing companies that abuse its TOS, so eager to see what action FB takes here: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... https:…

• @waxpancake Andy Baio on x

  A Peter Thiel-funded startup is scraping every photo it can find online (3 billion so far) to build a powerful facial recognition app that it's selling to law enforcement. https://twitter.com/...

• @rmac18 Ryan Mac on x

  FB also declined to comment on Thiel's involvement citing it one of his “personal investments.” I followed up asking if it would hold board members accountable for funding companies that directly violate its rules and IP. Not sure I'll get comment, but waiting to hear back.

• @zittrain Jonathan Zittrain on x

  Researchers have objected that using bots to scrape information in bulk from, say, Facebook could be deemed a felony. If there were ever a case to make, though, this is it: a company snatching 3 billion photos to build a service to identify any stranger. https://www.nytimes.com/.…

• @daveyalba Davey Alba on x

  There are so many jaw-dropping moments in this @kashhill feature on law enforcement's use of face recognition tech from the secretive company Clearview AI (backed by Peter Thiel!) And the reporting goes so deep. I have reporter's envy. Everyone go read it https://www.nytimes.com/…

• @kashhill Kashmir Hill on x

  When I first started looking into Clearview AI, it had a nonexistent office address on its website & one fake employee on LinkedIn, and no one from company would return my calls. But they knew about me and were monitoring for cops who uploaded my photo to their app. https://twitt…

• @carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x

  Genie is already out of the bottle with facial recognition. All the selfies we've posted & details we've shared on social media now fuel the police state. I still think this is trivial compared to when the other shoe drops on all the DNA data shared with 23andMe, Ancestry, etc. h…

• @tolles Chris Tolles on x

  @Carnage4Life @TechmemeChatter I think this would need to be squared with the recent decision that scraping info is a protected activity. Personally, I think the focus should be on government use of photo & any social media data without a warrant

• @iwillleavenow Crypti-Calli on x

  PASS. A. LAW. Ban this. Ban it yesterday. I genuinely don't understand how people (even in law enforcement) can see this, shrug, and think it's fine. https://twitter.com/...

• @ronwyden Ron Wyden on x

  This story reads like one of the more disturbing episodes of Black Mirror. Americans have a right to know whether their personal photos are secretly being sucked into a private facial recognition database. https://twitter.com/...

• @carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x

  A simple law to prevent surveillance state style facial recognition would be to ban a person's photo & name from being fed into a facial recognition system without their permission. That plus GDPR/CCPA style rights to ask for your facial recognition data to be deleted. https://tw…

• @bernstein Joe Bernstein on x

  A major takeaway from @kashhill's incredible story. Ethically-dubious companies have had the ability to create facial recognition tech on a terrifyingly vast scale for years. They haven't done so because even they recognized it was too evil https://www.nytimes.com/... pic.twitte…

• @kashhill Kashmir Hill on x

  I'm not sure which is scarier/more desirable. An app that puts a name to a face in seconds, or an app that shows you all the online photos of you that you didn't realize were there. This app does both, but only law enforcement has access to it, for now. https://twitter.com/...

• @yashar Yashar Ali on x

  I've had two demos of Clearview & the results were frightening/stunning in their accuracy. Both demonstrations involved me giving blurry screenshots of a video & Clearview was able to identify both people (friends who had consented) even though they barely have a presence online …

• @jreidenberg Joel Reidenberg on x

  Anyone want to try a class action suit to shut down the company. Scraping probably violated TOS and makes a good 3rd party beneficiary claim for those in the photos. ⁦cc: @kashhill⁩ The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It - NYT https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @stuntbox David Sleight on x

  Massive, holy shit-level “caught with their hand in the cookie jar” moment 10 paragraphs into this NY Times piece about Clearview's facial recognition work for law enforcement: https://www.nytimes.com/... pic.twitter.com/4es0b58K4T

• @davidenrich David Enrich on x

  Exclusive: Hundreds of law enforcement agencies (incl @FBI and @DHSgov) have quietly started using a facial-recognition program that ends your ability to walk down the street anonymously. It's funded by @peterthiel and has links to alt-right. by @kashhill https://www.nytimes.com/…

• @jacarandachick @jacarandachick on x

  Identified from photos you've never seen: “When I used my hand to cover my nose and the bottom of my face, the app still returned seven correct matches for me.” The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It https://www.nytimes.com/... cc @aral #surveillancecapitalism

• @charlesarthur Charles Arthur on x

  It's a viral hit - for police. Completely changes the game. UK police will want this too. And from 31 Jan, we're outside the EU, so any rulings about facial recognition bans there won't have any effect. https://twitter.com/...

• @popehat @popehat on x

  cue all the “why would you care unless you have something to hide” folks https://twitter.com/...

• @rmac18 Ryan Mac on x

  I've asked Facebook for comment on Clearview AI and asked whether litigation is possible. Waiting to hear back. Here's what FB previously said to the Times. Reading the tea leaves here, it wouldn't be a shock if they eventually send a legal threat letter to Clearview. https://twi…

• @profcarroll David Carroll on x

  Sorta like how Palantir never got in trouble for collaborating with Cambridge Analytica... https://twitter.com/...

• @alexstamos Alex Stamos on x

  This seems like an important junction. If this hoovering up of facial data is considered a legally safe thing for VC-backed companies, then we are in big trouble. At a minimum, somebody needs to throw an elbow that discourages new competitors. cc @Riana_Crypto and @daphnehk

• @alexstamos Alex Stamos on x

  FB has a history of going after scrapers using the civil component of the CFAA, but the 9th Circuit has repeatedly cut down the options there. This is an area where I have diverged from my friends at @EFF, who have fought to protect scraping. https://www.eff.org/...

• @thorstenbenner Thorsten Benner on x

  “We've relied on industry efforts to self-police but dams breaking because there is so much money on table. I don't see future where we harness benefits of face recognition technology without crippling abuse of surveillance that comes with it. Only way to stop it is to ban it.” h…

• @selectedwisdom Clint Watts on x

  Is this new? Or surprising? Is this article written in 2010? Law enforcement/gov use of this is the only one with oversight, what about private companies, that should really scare everyone. https://twitter.com/...

• @joshorton Josh Orton on x

  This is disgusting. A Sanders administration will ban facial recognition software in law enforcement, period. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @cbouzy Christopher Bouzy on x

  The software engineer me: Wow this is amazing tech! The American citizen me: JFC this is scary tech. https://twitter.com/...

• @scobleizer Robert Scoble on x

  I'm in so many databases it isn't funny. When I talk with friends I assume at least four governments are listening. Certainly many companies are. It's one reason why I mostly gave in. https://twitter.com/...

• @gladstein Alex Gladstein on x

  Future historians will split human society into two eras: pre-surveillance and post-surveillance. Even more significant than B.C. vs A.D. Today we are living at the transition point. We're the ones with the responsibility, like it or not, for keeping privacy and freedom alive. ht…

• @scotthech Scott Hechinger on x

  In other words, welcome to the reality already if you're Black or Latino living in targeted neighborhoods where wearing a certain color & walking down the street could land you on a gang database. Wonder if more people will care once they also become targeted. https://twitter.com…

• @nimazeighami VR Nima on x

  And there's code for it to work on AR glasses. Privacy has truly died. Cyberpunk fashion with face coverings needs to be a new standard. https://twitter.com/...

• @kevinakwok Kevin Kwok on x

  Many stories on tech can be overblown. Not this one though I have seen this app in use and it 100% works and is even more disconcerting than description here Global facial recognition doesn't exist only because of social norms rn. The tech is trivial https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @zittrain Jonathan Zittrain on x

  A few years ago Facebook successfully sued a garden-variety Facebook spammer for nearly $1 billion. A Facebook that's serious about privacy would be looking similarly aggressively into how “Clearview AI” obtained the billions of photos it's using to identify strangers. https://tw…

• @gwilliamthomas Will Thomas on x

  The project is financially backed by Peter Thiel. It's worth noting the former chief of staff at Thiel's venture capital firm is currently US Chief Technology Officer and has just rolled out a “light touch” regulatory framework for AI: https://www.wired.com/... https://twitter.co…

• @aclu @aclu on x

  This is the dangerous and disturbing reality of facial recognition today. Police should not be able to investigate and prosecute us by secretly running an error-prone and unregulated technology provided by a startup that shadily assembled a database of billions of face scans. htt…

• @secparam Ian Miers on x

  How orwellian is clearview's new face surveillance app? Well, when the police demo'd it to a journalist by running their face through it, Clearview called them to see if they were talking to the media. https://twitter.com/...

• @aweiss Aaron Weiss on x

  There is a story here for every local news organization in the country. Which agencies are using Clearview? What rules do they have over when it can be used? Would they have any way to know if an officer is misusing it? (Answer: They would not.) https://twitter.com/...

• @alexstamos Alex Stamos on x

  I assume Clearview has violated the copyrights of millions of people? Those people licensed Facebook to show their photos but that license doesn't flow through to somebody who violated ToS, I'm sure. Has there ever been a class-action on mass photo copyright?

• @davepell Dave Pell on x

  Important story. But companies don't end privacy. Decisions by leaders and indifference by citizens does. https://www.nytimes.com/... pic.twitter.com/mMrJvhkjmx

• @alexstamos Alex Stamos on x

  A really important story that demonstrates why @kashhill is the best privacy reporter working. Raises some interesting question: is there any legal way to slow down Clearview and discourage more investment into ubiquitous face recognition? https://twitter.com/...

• @isosteph Stephanie on x

  oh man this piece is so great but i wish it touched more on how totally unprepared the law is to handle this shit https://twitter.com/...

• @zeynep Zeynep Tufekci on x

  Read this and, well. Don't weep. Past time to rethink our sleepwalking technological path. 👇 https://twitter.com/...

• @kentremendous Ken Tremendous on x

  Delete your Facebook accounts. Delete your kids' Facebook accounts. Don't let your kids start Facebook accounts. And also — importantly — Peter Thiel drove Gawker into bankruptcy on a “privacy” issue and now he's literally funding the Surveillance State. Fuck that. https://twitte…

• @douglasmack Doug Mack on x

  I realize this tech has been available for years and has already been used for some truly awful dystopian stuff around the world, but this story is still jarring and terrifying. How long until most people just don't put any photos of themselves online? https://twitter.com/...

• @bridgetphetasy Bridget Phetasy on x

  The dystopian future I've read about my whole life is here and it's only a matter of time before we are all living in corporate archipelagos. https://twitter.com/...

• @felixsalmon Felix Salmon on x

  Peter Thiel is a Facebook board member and is also an investor in a company whose entire business model is predicated on violating Facebook's terms of service. https://twitter.com/...

• @lenubienne @lenubienne on x

  To be completely honest, I can't believe people still believe privacy exists. Hacked photo clouds, funny filter apps, camera doorbells, and just generally posting photos on social media all but ensure that you no longer “own” your own image. https://twitter.com/...

• @stevekopack Steve Kopack on x

  “The system — whose backbone is a database of more than three billion images that Clearview claims to have scraped from Facebook, YouTube, Venmo and millions of other websites — goes far beyond anything ever constructed by the United States government or Silicon Valley giants.” h…

• @jorge_guajardo Jorge Guajardo on x

  File under things that would be scandalous if they happened in China, instead of the USA. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @saralovesyou @saralovesyou on x

  We really do need to have a government that deals with this. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @davidplouffe David Plouffe on x

  Let's hope in future debates, candidates are asked about this, AI, changes in warfare, different education models. Much more important than the same old exchange on health care. These are all things that will or are happening and will greatly affect us all. https://twitter.com/..…

• @jameeljaffer Jameel Jaffer on x

  This is an amazing, scary story from @kashhill. Some of the quotes are absolutely crazy. https://twitter.com/...

• @jasonschreier Jason Schreier on x

  Even if you've grown indifferent to privacy concerns these days (or you just assume that tech companies are tracking everything we do no matter what) this is still pretty shocking. Tremendous reporting by @kashhill https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @mattblaze Matt Blaze on x

  Terrific reporting by @kashhill. Today this data and tech is used to efficiently identify petty criminals, which means that next week it will be used to identify insurance risks, and the week after to locate stalking targets. Trickle down big brother. https://twitter.com/...

• @kashhill Kashmir Hill on x

  @Aaron_Krolik Clearview says 600 law enforcement agencies are using its app. Detectives tell me it's amazing. When the founder took a photo of me while I covered my nose & mouth, it still worked, returning 7 photos of me, one 10 years old. It's insane. Read the story: https://www…

• @kashhill Kashmir Hill on x

  When @Aaron_Krolik did a forensic analysis of the app, he discovered code to pair it with augmented reality glasses, so you could theoretically identify people in real time walking down the street. Yeah, like in Terminator 2. https://twitter.com/...