Schools and other private enterprises may soon be able to use Clearview AI, the surveillance startup infamous for capturing 20 billion face scans from public social media searches.
A U.S. corporation that sells visitor control systems to schools acknowledged its involvement in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday. At the time of this announcement, 19 students and two teachers were killed in a school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Other face recognition rivals have spent years attempting to introduce the technology to schools with varied degrees of success and resistance. Two years ago, the state of New York even attempted to outlaw the use of face recognition technology in public schools.
Using its new “Clearview Consent” product, the company announced plans for an apparent one-to-one facial match verification system that could be utilized by educational institutions, financial institutions and other private businesses. With its facial recognition solution, Clearview argues that corporate firms may use it without having a big database of faces. A commercial company could theoretically utilize Clearview’s method to verify an individual’s identification before they create an internet account, check in at an airport, or prevent financial crime.
Clearview AI CEO Hoan Ton-That stated in a statement: “Today, FRT is used to unlock your phone, verify your identity, board a flight, enter a building, and even for payment.” With the introduction of our improved, industry-leading FRT algorithm from Clearview AI, we are now able to provide enterprises who utilize facial recognition as a consent-based process access to Clearview AI’s enhanced security and protection. Clearview declined to say how many businesses had shown an interest in the program in the past.
Clearview’s famed one-to-many facial recognition standard, which aims to authenticate the identification of people against its massive database of faces, has been condemned by privacy organizations and legislators alike. Clearview’s desire for change is likely to have been bolstered by recent restrictions that specifically target that part of the company’s operation.
Vaale, a Colombian app-based loan firm, is apparently employing Clearview’s modified verification technique to match user selfies to their IDs. Users seeking to get access to government websites using the ID.me service seem to utilize a similar method to authenticate their identity. In general, privacy advocates favor the more content-driven and restricted nature of 1:1 face matching to the more wild west, surveillance states element of one-to-many face recognition. 1:1 face matching. However, organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation caution that face matching still offers a wide range of risks.
Bennett Cyphers, Adam Schwartz, and Nathan Sheard of the EFF warn that “all types of face matching present severe digital rights issues, including face identification, verification, tracking, and clustering.” “The algorithm provides a possible match if the unknown faceprint is similar enough to any of the known faceprints. “Face identification” is a common name for this process.
To quote Ton-That, “Preventative use of face recognition equals fewer crimes and fewer victims.” For Clearview Consent, helping customers feel more safe in a world riddled with crime and fraud is its ultimate goal.”
Clearview’s decision to shift to a database-free version of their technology is partially due to the fact that it is more practical. Recently, new limitations and political resistance have threatened to upend their fundamental product offers in the United States. Clearview was fined £7.5 million by the UK government last week for breaking the country’s privacy laws by keeping facial scans of all U.K. citizens. Clearview was asked to suspend operations by a fourth nation, the United Kingdom, in the last several years.
Prior to that, Clearview and the American Civil Liberties Union had reached an agreement that essentially prohibited Clearview from selling U.S. access to its database. Clearview’s plans to grow outside public-private partnerships were jeopardized by this settlement. At the time, privacy activists such Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn said the deal was a “milestone for civil rights.”
This article is paraphrased from the following: Clearview AI Says It’s Bringing Facial Recognition to Schools, Mack DeGeurin, Wednesday 12:15PM, https://gizmodo.com/clearview-ai-facial-recognition-privacy-1848975528
