Ukraine is using ClearView AI’s notorious facial recognition software Le Temps (Switzerland), March 15, 2022
This is a surprise. Strongly criticized for its facial recognition system, the American company ClearView AI has recently started collaborating with the Ukrainian authorities. Its software should make it possible to identify Russians present on its territory, whether they are alive or dead. This rapprochement between the Ukrainian authorities and the New York firm was initiated by the latter which, according to revelations of the Reuters agency, offered its services for free to the country attacked by Russia.
Ukraine began Saturday to use the software ClearView AI, including to identify people at checkpoints. The goal is to identify Russians, presumably to unmask fighters infiltrating among civilians and wanting to engage in acts of sabotage. The director of ClearView AI, Hoan Ton-That, said that he will not offer his services to the Russian authorities.
By using the U.S. software, Ukraine will be able to identify the dead more easily than by trying to match fingerprints, according to Hoan Ton-That’s letter to Kiev. His letter, seen by Reuters , says the recognition can be effective even with facial injuries. According to the director of ClearView AI, its technology can be used to reunite separated refugees with their families, identify Russian agents and help the government detect fake posts on social media.
If ClearView AI is interesting to the Ukrainian authorities, it is because the American company claims to have sucked into its databases all the photos of the social network VKontakte. The latter, indirectly bought by the Russian authorities in late 2021, has about 100 million regular users. Significantly more popular than Facebook – banned since a week ago in Russia -, VKontakte is thus a valuable database for ClearView AI.
Ukraine’s use of this American technology can potentially pose major problems. As its system is not totally reliable – like all facial recognition systems – there is a high risk that people will be mistaken, with potentially dramatic consequences. In addition, ClearView AI acquired a very significant portion of its photos without asking permission from social networks (whether VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram), let alone their users.
At the end of February, ClearView AI announced its new global ambitions. The company wants to have 100 billion faces in its database within a year. This would mean a massive expansion of the information in its possession: two years ago, when an investigation by the New York Times brought ClearView AI’s activities to light, the company had sucked the faces of 3 billion people from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and millions of recruitment, information or payment sites.
Today, many local police forces use its facial recognition system in the United States. Belgium has also employed its services, a priori on an experimental basis. Many countries have banned the use of ClearView AI technologies, but it is not known which ones are using it, either on a regular basis or as a test.
How Clearview AI is improving its image on the backs of Russians
ZDNet, March 17, 2022
How do you improve your brand image? Just offer your services to Ukraine, and scan billions of Russian faces. That’s what the company Clearview AI has decided to do.
This is news that made the French press this week. Ukraine is reportedly using Clearview AI’s artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to detect Russian invaders at the height of Russia’s military offensive against that country. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has reportedly adopted Clearview AI’s facial recognition engine to “spot people of interest at checkpoints, among other uses.” And for free, according to the company.
For those who are familiar with the subject of facial recognition, the mere name Clearview rings a bell, as this company has already made headlines in recent months. For the rest of you, this is where you ask me: what is Clearview AI? And what’s this dark story about facial recognition?
Clearview AI is a company that develops and markets technologies that scan photos and videos of people’s faces, and recognize and identify them. These products are sold to law enforcement agencies in various countries.
To educate its artificial intelligence, the company uses all kinds of materials. Forensic mugshots, visuals posted on social media profiles and news sites are swallowed to train the facial recognition algorithms.
The goal? That any face captured by a digital device is quickly recognizable, comparable, and potentially linked to an identity stored in a database.
Concerning the Russian belligerents, more than two billion photos would have been extracted from VKontakte, Russia’s favorite Facebook. And more than 10 billion visuals would be available to be used by the AI. This is a great communication coup for Clearview. Just imagine: scanning the faces of bad Russians to protect Ukrainians!
But this communication stunt can’t hide a very sordid reality. Clearview AI’s practices are quite brutal when it comes to protecting privacy.
Last December, in France, the CNIL gave Clearview AI formal notice to stop reusing photographs accessible on the Internet. The strong way to prevent photos and videos of French citizens from being sucked up without authorization to swell its database. And on the GAFAM side, Clearview AI’s practices are infuriating. Google, Microsoft and Facebook have sent letters to the company, demanding that Clearview stop scraping images from their platforms and services.
Some would say it could simply be jealousy. After all, in the face of public pressure, Microsoft and Amazon, as well as IBM, have pledged to stop selling facial recognition software to law enforcement for privacy and surveillance reasons.
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via:sansnom
Translated by Act for freedom now!
