Clearview AI
Summary
Stakeholders & impact
Relationship between the problem and people, society, business, and planet
Themes
Excessive surveillance
Government regulation & oversight
Transparency
Consent
Algorithmic bias
The wild-west of facial recognition & the end of public anonymity
Imagine a world where you could readily identify a person with nothing more than a photo. With only a few taps, you could discover where they live, the businesses they frequent, and everything they've ever posted on the internet. Seems pretty creepy, right? The reality is, this experience already exists. Tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft possess the capabilities to bring the aforementioned experience to life but have refrained from doing so because of its radical erosion of privacy.
Big-tech's responsibility in the absence of systematic federal regulation is admirable. Still, their virtuous actions haven't dismayed outlaws from blazing a trail into the wild, wild west of facial recognition powered surveillance.
The most infamous of the bunch is Clearview AI, a self-proclaimed "mission-driven" startup that offers a facial recognition tool to law enforcement agencies.
Now, the use of facial recognition by law enforcement isn't revolutionary --they've been using the technology for over 20 years -- but they've been limited to searching government databases. Clearview AI broke the mold by offering law enforcement agencies their first-ever public database. A database that consists of over 3 billion images scraped from every nook and cranny of the internet without their owner's consent.
Today, Clearview AI is used by 2,400 law enforcement agencies with virtually no oversight or knowledge of how it is used on a day-to-day basis.
In this case study, we'll examine Clearview AI's actions through the lens of responsible design to shed light on the potential positive and negative societal implications.
Stakeholders & Impact
Cohorts affected by the unregulated use of Clearview AI's facial recognition app by law enforcement agencies
Citizens
Positive impact:
The promise of a safer communities
Negative impact:
Risk of being passively spied on without any reasonable suspicion or consent
Discourages nonconformist behavior, free association, right to freedom of assembly and expression without the fear of being tracked
Marginalized Minority Groups
Positive impact:
The promise of a safer communities
Negative impact:
At greater risk of unlawful arrest and discrimination due to algorithmic bias
At greater risk of enhanced racial profiling by law enforcement
Law Enforcement
Positive impact:
Ability to search nationwide database of images to identify suspects of heinous crimes
Negative impact
Risk of being sued for wrongful arrests based on algorithmic misidentification
Lack of transparency amplifies public's mistrust
Clearview AI
Positive impact:
Lack of federal facial recognition regulations and oversight permits Clearview AI to use their product in any way they see fit without consequences
Positioning themselves as a mission-driven company and targeting law enforcement increases likelihood of securing lucrative government contracts
Negative impact:
State privacy laws hinder potential growth
Relationships between the problem, the people, society and the planet
The tensions that exist
Technology advancement <> lack of regulation
Legislation and government oversight have not kept pace with the speed of facial recognition innovation. As a result, we've relied on industry efforts to self-police, but the money on the table is too enticing for startups like Clearview AI to ignore --The move fast and break things mentality is the status quo.
Lack of regulation <> law enforcement autonomy
The absence of any kind of systematic federal regulation or permitting process has left individual police departments to decide how to use facial recognition and what to share with the public.
As a result, federal and state law enforcement have limited knowledge of how facial recognition works and its potential pitfalls -- leading to misuse, abuse and racial profiling.
Law enforcement autonomy <> societal trust
There may be benefits to law enforcement's use of facial recognition, but federal and state departments have chosen to keep their use of facial recognition in an information vacuum.
Their lack of transparency and accountability has exacerbated society's already existing mistrust in law enforcement institutions. The backlash against the use of facial recognition in law enforcement will likely grow more robust, no matter the potential upside.
Privacy concerns <> big tech response to Clearview AI image scraping
Data privacy and consent is a touchy subject for big tech. Many of their business models rely on the monetization of user data.
Although they unanimously submitted cease and desist orders to Clearview AI, no legal action has been taken. It appears that they do not want to provoke the "user privacy" monster that looms in the shadows.