In the latest report, facial recognition platform Clearview AI said that it's now in the process to collect 100 billion photos of human faces. The data will be stored in its dedicated database.
Clearview AI Aims to Track 100 Billion Facial Images
According to a news story from The Washington Post, the American facial recognition company is now focused on collecting 100 billion facial photos in its database.
The firm aimed to track each of them over the course of a year.
The Post also mentioned that a December financial presentation indicated that the action will also make everyone easily identifiable. As of the moment, there were reportedly over 7.9 billion people living on Earth.
As such, the collection of the facial photos appears to be the company's goal and not a plan. Each month, 1.5 billion images are reportedly added by Clearview.
To succeed in its goal, the platform noted that it needs $50 million to achieve 100 billion images of people.
The company said that its "index of faces" has grown from 3 billion images to more than 10 billion since early 2020 and that its data collection system now ingests 1.5 billion images a month.
"With $50 million from investors, the company said, it could bulk up its data collection powers to 100 billion photos, build new products, expand its international sales team, and pay more toward lobbying government policymakers to "develop favorable regulation."
Related Article: Clearview AI to Get a Patent in the US for its Facial Recognition Technology Despite Controversy
Clearview AI Gets Photos From Millions of Websites
In another report by Ars Technica, Clearview AI reportedly obtained photos from several sources without the consent of the owners of the images.
According to the source, some social media sites including Facebook and Twitter urged the company to delete the photos that it has taken in the past.
In response to this, Clearview AI said that its data collection process was within the protection of the First Amendment.
In December, Tech Times reported that the firm was called out by multiple privacy watchdogs around the world due to its alleged violations of a person's privacy.
In Canada, provinces such as British Columbia, Quebec, and Alberta requested Clearview to take down the images that were obtained without any due permission. The authorities also expressed their concern regarding the collection of personal information of the individuals.
Clearview AI Lawsuit
Regarding the scrutiny that Clearview AI is facing, Tech Times wrote a report in May 2021 that many countries disagreed with its method of collecting the data.
As such, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Austria, and Greece all disapproved of the way of extracting information from public websites. In this regard, the nations were complaining that the facial recognition platform had been violating the privacy policies in Europe.
After the lawsuit was filed against the company, the authorities said that Clearview AI has halted its operation to stop selling its product to US-based private firms.
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This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Joseph Henry
