Clearview AI Allegedly Searches Millions of Faces Without Consent: How to Check If You're Included

Right now, Clearview AI's face-identifying tool is allegedly being used by various U.S. public agencies. These include the state police, the Air Force, state health organizations, u.s. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, offices of state attorneys, as well as public schools.

US Police Depts Allegedly Use Clearview AI's Tool to Search Millions of Americans' Faces
Participant hold their laptops in front of an illuminated wall at the annual Chaos Computer Club (CCC) computer hackers' congress, called 29C3, on December 28, 2012 in Hamburg, Germany. The 29th Chaos Communication Congress (29C3) attracts hundreds of participants worldwide annually to engage in workshops and lectures discussing the role of technology in society and its future. Photo by Patrick Lux/Getty Images

Courier-Tribune also reported that more than 60 law enforcement agencies are also accused of using the new AI tool. These agencies are stationed across North Carolina.

On the other hand, Gizmodo confirmed that more than 1,800 public agencies across the United States are believed to be relying on the controversial AI tool. Most of these agencies are police departments.

However, they defended that the employees who used Clearview AI's technology didn't ask for their permissions. The current security issue was first reported by BuzzFeed, a news source that first interviewed the AI company.

How Clearview AI's tool work

Clearview AI explained that its app could easily identify a suspect in just a matter of seconds. It can achieve this by just looking through a photo.

US Police Depts Allegedly Use Clearview AI's Tool to Search Millions of Americans' Faces
A participant sits with a laptop computer as he attends the annual Chaos Communication Congress of the Chaos Computer Club at the Berlin Congress Center on December 28, 2010 in Berlin, Germany. The Chaos Computer Club is Europe's biggest network of computer hackers and its annual congress draws up to 3,000 participants. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Once the tool is used to scan different images, it can easily link them to public social media profiles and other related pictures. The company also stated that its technology is more accurate than other face-detecting apps and devices on the market.

Since the AI giant firm has developed its facial recognition tool from billions of social media images, its algorithmic power heavily relies on your data. Meanwhile, Clearview AI didn't disclose the real identities of its users at the moment. However, BuzzFeed created a data table to determine if their public agencies use the tool.

Checking if your police or public department also uses it

If you want to use the database, all you need to do is clear here. Once you are on BuzzFeed's official website, you must scroll down until you reach the Surveillance Nation section.

It is a grey box that has more than 180 pages. This database contains all the accused public agencies in various states in the U.S. To check if you're a police department and other public agencies are included, all you need to do is type their full names in the search bar. You can click here for more details.

For more news updates about Clearview AI and other controversial tools, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

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Written by: Giuliano de Leon

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