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Privacy AI

'Here's the File Clearview AI Has Been Keeping On Me, and Probably On You Too' (vice.com) 53

Posted by EditorDavid from the getting-a-clear-view dept.
"If you live in California, under the rules of the newly enacted California Consumer Privacy Act, you can see what Clearview has gathered on you, and request that they stop it," writes Vice.

I recently did just that... 11 days later, Clearview emailed me back asking for "a clear photo" of myself and a government-issued ID. "Clearview does not maintain any sort of information other than photos," the company wrote. "To find your information, we cannot search by name or any method other than image. Additionally, we need to confirm your identity to guard against fraudulent access requests. Finally, we need your name to maintain a record of removal requests as required by law."

After a moment of irritation and a passing desire not to give these people any more of my information, I emailed Clearview a photo of my work ID badge and a redacted copy of my passport. About a month went by, and then I got a PDF, containing an extremely curious collection of images and an explanation that my request for data deletion and opt-out had been processed. "Images of you, to the extent the [sic] we are able to identify them using the image that you have shared to facilitate your request, will no longer appear in Clearview search results," the "Clearview Privacy Team" wrote...

The images seen here range from around 2004 to 2019; some are from my MySpace profile (RIP) and some from Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. What's curious is that, according to Clearview, many of them weren't scraped from social media directly, but from a collection of utterly bizarre and seemingly random websites.
So not just Instagram, but also "sites that have already scraped Instagram, like Insta Stalker."

Clearview's clients include the FBI, several police departments, and America's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as Interpol, according to a recent article in Buzzfeed, in addition to top companies like Walmart, Macy's, Eventbrite, and even Coinbase. Clearview's web page argues their service "helps to identify child molesters, murderers, suspected terrorists, and other dangerous people quickly, accurately, and reliably to keep our families and communities safe."
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'Here's the File Clearview AI Has Been Keeping On Me, and Probably On You Too' More

'Here's the File Clearview AI Has Been Keeping On Me, and Probably On You Too'

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  • It was only a matter of time. How many more of these companies are out there? Don't tell me zero.

  • Child molesters? (Score:2, Flamebait)

    by DrMrLordX ( 559371 )

    If the article author isn't a child molester, why were they mining data on him? Also, are child molesters allowed to use the California Consumer Privacy Act to force Clearview to delete records?

    • Why is the first thing you think about, child molesting? Sounds like you're a child molester!
      Cops! Search him *until you find something*!
      What dirty secrets do you hide? What did you fap to? Where did you merely happen to be, that we can spin until we cqn use it to ruin your life?

      . . .

      See, I can be a complete piece of shit and totalitarian harassment enabler, like you just were, too.

      • The article specifically mentions that Clearview gathers data to help law enforcement track people like child molesters. Try to keep up.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gweihir ( 88907 )

          The article specifically mentions that Clearview gathers data to help law enforcement track people like child molesters. Try to keep up.

          And since everybody is a potential child molester (at least in the minds of these people), that nicely justifies what they are doing.

          • Does it? That doesn't square with any of the legal standards observed in the United States. The old saw is, "innocent until proven guilty".

            Clearview can't claim that everyone is a "potential child molester" since that idea has no standing in US case law, outside of maybe sex offender registry laws which are themselves probably unConstitutional. Not that anyone would dare take on that sacred cow.

            It's up to Clearview to justify their own claims. If you're tracking someone who is not a child molester, murde

          • And since everybody is a potential child molester

            Including, of course, all children.

            In fact, if you were to do searches of random children's phones, I'd bet you'd find they keep suspiciously large numbers of photos of children on them. Same for parents. So there are good grounds for investigating all parents and children as suspect child molesters. Jail the lot of them until the evidence has been secured!

  • These are most likely link farms.

    Sites use them, because Google ranks pages by the number and prominence of external links to that page. It's officaially not allowed by Google, but apart from designing your website and pages to be semantically sensible, it is what "SEO" companies offer.

  • "will no longer appear" means....? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Sunday March 08, 2020 @10:38AM (#59808344) Journal

    "Images of you, to the extent the [sic] we are able to identify them using the image that you have shared to facilitate your request, will no longer appear in Clearview search results," the "Clearview Privacy Team" wrote...

    Ummm, that doesn't say the images were deleted, just that they "won't appear" in the Clearview results.

    By the careful wording they chose, it seems super obvious to me that they still have the images.

    • Yep, nothing stopping them from transferring all requested "deletions" to a sister company called Transparentsight and offering the searches as well.

      • The images they have already collected will not appear.

        But do they guarantee that they won't scrape more (and associate them) in the future? I'm not seeing that anywhere...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MrKaos ( 858439 )

      By the careful wording they chose, it seems super obvious to me that they still have the images.

      And now they have confirmation of identity. There is no guarantee they won't use it in *match* results. I'm starting to feel really good about staying away from the whole social media thing. Perhaps I need to copyright images of myself because of how these people take our liberties and convert them to capital.

      Perhaps the answer is to use their service, to confirm they have your images, then seek rent from them for using those images whilst progressively increasing the cost.

      After all copyright violat

    • Ummm, that doesn't say the images were deleted

      That was my first thought exactly. However, because they are a scraping firm, actual deleting would help nothing. They will have to keep the image in their blacklist to prevent it from re-appearing again.

  • Thanks, California (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Sunday March 08, 2020 @10:42AM (#59808358)

    Now all I have to do is to photoshop the face of some person of interest into a suitably redacted photo of government ID and send it in. Clearview will then be required to hand over all the information they have on that person. All through a suitably anonymized email service.

    • Given the number of images of people on social media, shouldn't be too hard to find out a little more about that dick in your office who's pissing everyone off lately...hmmm...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        shouldn't be too hard to find out a little more about that dick in your office who's pissing everyone off

        We have a mirror.

  • Frankly, I think those laws are the wrong way around. They should be forced to ask, BEFORE collecting data, or face criminal charges. (With sanity laws, to distinguish accidential collection, or important press on public figures in their public time, like taking a panorama photo and somebody in the background jumping into the picture, or a politician ordering a murder on the job, or the like.)

    • It's a nice thought, but what really should be done is to hold these companies accountable for how they use this data they scrape up from other aggregators (it doesn't seem Clearview does all the work themselves).

      They claim their service helps law enforcement with murderers, terrorists, and other ne'er do wells. But they had a file on the article author, and nobody has said anything about the author being a murderer or a terrorist.

      Or as you noticed above, a child molester.

      I think it's safe to bet he isn't

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Frankly, I think those laws are the wrong way around. They should be forced to ask, BEFORE collecting data, or face criminal charges.

      You mean as with the GDPR? Naa, cannot have that in a nice cozy police state. You have no rights, citizen, simply because they say so.

  • ... i feel like we should.

    for better or for worse, i am freaking out a bit.

    • What now? Every single day there are multiple posts where people are "freaking out" over nothing interesting, or normal human interactions. The cold, Trump, the FBI, the NSA, the CIA, the Reptilians, and every other stupid thing in the world to freak out over.

      At least two generations have grown up scared of damn near everything. I don't know if it is because of their utter helplessness on even simple problems - like the article I saw about no one knowing how to change a light bulb - or

  • Like most I have a couple email addresses, one for spam, one for sign-ups, the personal one, the work one, etc. One day I just googled the spam/crap email address and instantly there are a dozen of "public records companies" that have my real name and address linked to my spam email. I haven't been hyper-diligent about keeping thing separate, etc. I don't belong to any social sites other than slashdot, if that even counts.

    Not living a double life, etc but still the fact that everything is pretty much ava

  • Is there a way around the requirement without having to photoshop an ID?
  • he agreement to delete your information says "When we are done processing your request, the photo of yourself you shared to facilitate the request is de-identified. You will not appear in any Clearview search results. We will maintain a record of your request as specified by relevant law." De-identified is not "deleted" it is flagged as "ignore" in a search of the information. Government needs to satep in here. But, sadly we know that won't happen as they want that information for their own purposes.

  • Maybe this is what really happens?
    Clearview now associates your photos with your actual name. Now they also have your address. Record the fact that you tried to get rid of these photos, who you are and report you to the FBI and local police as a person of interest.

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