Police use facial recognition tool linked to social networks

23. 1. 2020

In connection with the investigation of the attack on the military base in Pensacola, after years, the discussion about the possibility of breaking into locked phones that are somehow related to the investigation has rekindled. In connection with this, the names of tools such as Cellebrite and others are mainly inflected. But The New York Times recently reported on a similar, lesser-known app that some say could "mark the end of privacy as we know it."

This is an application Clearview ai, which uses facial recognition based on literally billions of photos, sourced from sites ranging from Facebook to Venmo. If a user uploads a photo to the app, the tool will start searching its database of portraits and offer the result in the form of publicly published images of that person, along with links to the exact location of those photos.

According to the New York Times, police have used the app in the past, particularly in connection with investigations into crimes ranging from shoplifting to murder. In one case, Indiana State Police were able to solve a case in just twenty minutes thanks to the Clearview AI application. However, there is a certain risk associated with the use of the application in connection with the use of facial recognition by investigative authorities. There have been cases of police abuse of facial recognition systems in the past, and user privacy advocates fear an increase in cases of such abuse in connection with Clearview AI.

Many companies working on facial recognition technology prefer to hold back because of privacy concerns. Google is no exception, having already withdrawn from the creation of this technology in 2011 due to concerns that it could be used in a "very bad way". The way Clearview works may also violate the terms of use of some websites and other services. The editors of the New York Times also had trouble finding out who Clearview actually belongs to - the alleged developer of the application, whom they found on LinkedIn, uses a fake name.

Source: iDropNews

Topics: portrait, Google, Photos, phone, user, Application

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