Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and Mijente have filed lawsuits against Clearview, accusing it of violating Illinois and California state law by downloading people's photos and putting them in its database. The company has been publicly accused by Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social-media companies of violating their terms of services by scraping images and videos. In July, Clearview raised $30 million in a Series B funding round the investors were not identified in the funding announcement. It claims to have scraped 3 billion photos from the internet and has given free trials of its service to thousands of police officers, and previously to private companies like Macy's and the NBA. The documents detail how Clearview AI, which uses billions of images downloaded from social media to identify people using facial recognition, is capable of wooing high-level customers within the US government, including the US Defense Department.Ĭlearview is a facial-recognition company with one main function: taking a searched face and matching it to other faces using pictures from sites like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. This story is available exclusively to InsiderĪnd start reading now. Officers were directed to cease all access as of Janufour days after the New York Times story was published.Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. "Interesting that someone says we aren't using it when we clearly are," another employee from the ACCCE wrote on January 21. "Or should we stop using it since everyone is raising the issue of approval," another replies, with a smiley face emoji. The emails also show some bemusement internally at public claims the AFP was not using the tool, with one officer commenting: "Maybe someone should tell the media that we are using it!" In January, after the media began reporting about Clearview AI, another member of staff notes "there should be no software used without the appropriate clearance". In response, another officer responds they "haven't even gone down that path yet", revealing that they're "running the app" on their personal phone. In December 2019, one officer asks if "info sec" (information security) had raised any concerns about the use of Clearview AI. The use of Clearview AI appears to have caused concern within the agency - and in some cases, officers appear to query whether the tool has been formally approved. The new cache of AFP documents shows officers accessed the Clearview AI platform from early November 2019. "The use by AFP officers of private services to conduct official AFP investigations in the absence of any formal agreement or assessment as to the system's integrity or security is concerning," Labor leaders, including Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, said in a statement at the time. No formal contract was ever entered into. The AFP acknowledged in April that members of the ACCE had undertaken a free trial of Clearview's facial recognition services, but the extent of its use by officers remained unclear. Last week, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) announced an investigation into Clearview's use of scraped data and biometrics, working with the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). She did not comment on questions from the ABC regarding whether the trial was approved and conducted appropriately by officers. The AFP initially denied any ties to Clearview AI before later confirming officers had accepted a trial.Īn agency spokeswoman said a "limited pilot of the system" was conducted to assess its suitability in combatting child exploitation and abuse. The company provoked outrage in January, when the New York Times revealed the extent of its data collection and its use by law enforcement officials in the United States. In another incident, staff from the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCE) conducted searches for five "persons of interest".Īccording to emails released under Freedom of Information laws, one officer also used the app on their personal phone, apparently without information security approval.īased in New York, Clearview AI says it has created a tool that allows users to search faces across a database that contains billions of photos taken, or "scraped", without consent from platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. At least one officer tested the software using images of herself and another member of staff as part of a free trial.
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