Facial recognition startup Clearview AI defends use of its controversial technology on grounds of Free Speech

Hoan Ton-That, founder and CEO of facial recognition company Clearview AI, claimed on Feb. 5, 2020, in response to a cease-and-desist letter from Twitter, that his company has a First Amendment right to scrape publicly available data — such as images posted on social media — for use on its online platform. Clearview AI has amassed over 3 billion photos from public platforms and provided the data to numerous law enforcement agencies nationwide, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to a recent New York Times report.

Key Players

Hoan Ton-That is the founder and CEO of Clearview AI, a facial recognition company that culls images from public platforms. The photo database can match a person’s face to online photos and profiles and link back to the source site. 

Further Details

In January 2020, Twitter joined the list of tech companies to send a cease-and-desist letter to Clearview AI, which includes Google, YouTube, Venmo, and LinkedIn, according to CBS News. The letter demands that the company stop taking photos and other data from its platform “for any reason” and delete previously amassed data, as per The New York Times.

In the past, other companies capable of building such a tool have decided not to move forward with the idea. In 2011, Chairman of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board Eric Schmidt, then also a Google executive, said his company would not pursue mass facial recognition technology, calling the possibilities for misuse “very concerning,” The Telegraph reports. Hidden in Clearview AI’s code is programming language that could pair the technology with augmented reality glasses, allowing the wearer to look at complete strangers and instantly know their name, date of birth, address, whom they know, and more, according to Popular Mechanics. 

In January 2020, Ton-That defended Clearview AI’s technology as a valuable law enforcement resource, saying he believes it to be the “best use” of the technology. Presently, Clearview AI is not available to the public. But there exists no federal restriction on the data-scraping practices utilized by the company, according to Gizmodo. Ton-That’s response to Twitter suggests that Clearview AI plans to fight tech companies’ requests on a First Amendment basis. 

Outcomes

New Jersey attorney general bans use of Clearview AI by NJ law enforcement

Attorney General Gurbir Grewal of New Jersey “put a moratorium on Clearview AI’s chilling, unregulated facial recognition software,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) tweeted. In a statement on its site, Clearview AI claims it is “not a surveillance system,” but an “after-the-fact research tool.” Grewal disagrees and has suspended all use of the technology by law enforcement in his state until further notice. 

“We’re all screwed”: Stanford law professor warns of potential danger with facial recognition

Al Gidari, a privacy professor at Stanford Law School, called Clearview AI’s practices “creepy.” Gidari also predicted that more companies similar to Clearview AI in practice are likely to sprout up in the near future, saying, “absent a very strong federal privacy law, we’re all screwed.”

Clearview AI condemned by Democratic senators

Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) expressed concern for misuse of Clearview AI’s technology: Markey in a letter directly addressed to Ton-That, Wyden in a tweet from Jan. 19, 2020. Josh Horton, an aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, condemned Clearview AI as well and tweeted that a Sanders administration “will ban facial recognition in law enforcement, period.”