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Clearview AI landed a new facial recognition contract with ICE

Clearview was already known to work with the branch of Homeland Security fiercely criticized for implementing the Trump administrations harsh immigration policies.

The new contract makes it clear that relationship is ongoing and that Clearview isnt just playing a bit part in techs lucrative scrum for federal contracts.

According to the award notice, the funding office for the contract is Homeland Security Investigations , a division within ICE that focuses on cross-border criminal activity, including drug and human trafficking.

Its somewhat mysterious facial recognition software allows clients to upload a photo of anyone to cross-reference it against a massive database full of photos scraped from online sources, including social networks. Civil liberties groups see Clearviews tech as a privacy nightmare, but for any law enforcement agency tasked with tracking down people, its a dream come true.

Clearview has faced near-constant scrutiny from privacy advocates and even large tech companies since the quiet company was exposed in a report this January.

Facebook, Google, Linkedin, Twitter and YouTube have all denounced Clearviews use of data scraped from their platforms, with some of those companies even authoring cease-and-desist letters for violating their terms of service.

Original article
Author: Taylor Hatmaker

TechCrunch is a leading technology media property, dedicated to obsessively profiling startups, reviewing new Internet products, and breaking tech news.

Taylor Hatmaker has recently written 3 articles on similar topics including :
  1. "The state of New York voted this week to pause any implementation of facial recognition technology in schools for two years". (July 23, 2020)
  2. "Minneapolis voted Friday to ban the use of facial recognition software for its police department, growing the list of major cities that have implemented local restrictions on the controversial technology". (February 12, 2021)
  3. "The city council in Portland, Oregon passed legislation Wednesday thats widely regarded as the most aggressive municipal ban on facial recognition technology so far". (September 10, 2020)
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