Media: Clearview AI offered trial of facial recognition to law-enforcement agencies worldwide

Law enforcement agencies and government organizations in 24 countries outside the United States used the controversial facial-recognition technology Clearview AI. BuzzFeed News reports.

Through February 2020, police departments, prosecutors’ offices, universities and interior ministries around the world conducted nearly 14,000 searches using Clearview AI software.

According to the press, Clearview AI offered free trial versions to law enforcement personnel around the world, including Australia, Brazil and the United Kingdom. Some organisations admitted using the technology without the knowledge or permission of their leadership.

Based on the available information, journalists compiled a table listing 88 international government- and taxpayer-funded agencies and organisations that used or tested the company’s facial-recognition service through February 2020.

Some of them were in countries where Clearview’s use has been deemed illegal. For example, in February 2021, the Canadian Privacy Commissioner stated that the company “violated federal and provincial privacy laws.” He recommended that Clearview cease offering services to Canadian clients, stop collecting Canadians’ photographs, and delete existing images and biometric data of citizens.

Although facial-recognition technology is used in at least two dozen countries, CEO Hoan Ton-That insists that the United States remains the core market for the company.

“Despite the huge demand for our services worldwide, Clearview AI is first and foremost focused on providing our services to law enforcement and governmental agencies in the United States,” he said.

Ton-That noted that many countries expressed demand for the company’s technology because “they know it can help in investigating crimes.”

Since the beginning of 2020, regulators in Canada, France, Sweden, Australia, the United Kingdom and Finland have begun investigations into the use of Clearview by their government institutions.

Many experts and human rights groups argue that facial-recognition technologies must be banned. For example, the Algorithmic Fairness League says that without regulation and proper oversight such systems can lead to excessive requests or false arrests.

Earlier in April, it emerged that employees at almost two thousand government agencies in the United States used Clearview AI without authorization from their superiors.

At the end of April, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden proposed legislatively ban government agencies purchasing data from facial-recognition system vendors without a court order.

In May rights advocates filed legal complaints against Clearview AI in France, Austria, Greece, Italy and the United Kingdom.

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