Clearview AI

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Clearview AI

Basic information
Founded	2017
Legal Structure	Private
Industry
Official website	https://www.clearview.ai/

Clearview AI, Inc. is an American facial recognition company, providing software to law enforcement, government agencies, and (previously) private companies. The AI-software matches faces to a database of more than 20 billion images collected from the Internet, including social media applications. The company maintained a low profile until late 2019, when its usage by law enforcement was first reported.

The software is purportedly as simple as taking a photo of someone in public, then searching Clearview AI's database of over 3 billion photos which retrieves social media accounts connected to that person from all across the web.

Clearview AI was founded by Hoan Ton-That, Charles C. Johnson, and Richard Shwartz. Ton-That is a university dropout who began his career by creating phishing applications and computer worms and was subsequently investigated by police. Shwartz is a politician who worked for New York mayors Rudy Guiliani and Ed Koch among other politicians^{[citation needed]}. Johnson is a right-wing political activist and possible FBI informant.

Consumer-impact summary

Overview of concerns that arise from the conduct towards users of the product (if applicable):

• User Freedom
• User Privacy
• Business Model
• Market Control

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Incidents

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This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Clearview AI category.

Example incident one (date)

Main article: link to the main CR Wiki article

Short summary of the incident (could be the same as the summary preceding the article).

Example incident two (date)

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Entities reported using Clearview AI

In 2020, Buzzfeed News published a detailed report on the use of Clearview AI, one of the most notable publications that brought the facial recognition company into the public eye^{[citation needed]}. According to the documents, the software has been used by "people in more than 2,200 law enforcement departments, government agencies, and companies across 27 countries". The following entities were listed as users of Clearview AI at some point in time, some of which have been customers of the software while others without official accounts (e.g. trial periods).

Private companies

• Walmart
• Macy's
• Best Buy
• Home Depot
• Kohl's
• Rite Aid
• Madison Square Garden
• Eventbrite
• Coinbase
• NBA
• Wells Fargo
• Bank of America
• AT&T
• Verizon
• T-Mobile
• Veritone - an AI software company that tracks characteristics of individuals and vehicles among other AI capabilities ^{[citation needed]}
• NEC's NeoFace WideNet - facial recognition software

Law enforcement & government entities

• New York Police Department (NYPD)
• US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
• Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
• US Secret Service
• Drug Enforcement Administration
• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF)
• US Marshals
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police
• Toronto Police Service
• Australian Federal Police
• London's Metropolitan Police
• Interpol
• 600+ US police departments
• At least ten fusion centers, including in Louisana and the U.S. Virgin Islands
• White House Tech Office

Police departments

Some police departments include (but not limited to) those located in:

• Atlanta, GA
• Gainesville, FL
• Broward County, FL
• Miami, FL
• San Mateo, CA
• Philadelphia, PA
• Wyomissing, PA
• Chicago, IL
• Raleigh, NC
• Somerset, MA
• Indiana State Police

Additional contracts were proposed to the following cities:

• Antioch, CA
• Green Bay, WI
• Davie, FL
• Bradenton, FL

Other unspecified entities

• College security departments
  • Florida International University
  • Columbia University
  • and others
• Attorneys general offices
• 50 educational institutions across 24 states, including at least two high schools
• 46 financial institutions
• Private investigators
• Security firms

Foreign entities

Clearview AI has consistently maintained its position that it focuses on cosumers in the US and Canada. Yet, included in Buzzfeed's report are entities in the following locations outside the US and Canada:

• Australia
• France
• India
• Sweden
• United Kingdom
• Italy
• Greece
• Netherlands

• United Arab Emirates (private entities as well as UAE police)
• Qatar
• Singapore
• and others

Additional locations in which the company hoped to expand into include:

• Ukraine
• Colombia
• Brazil
• Nigeria

See also

Link to relevant theme articles or companies with similar incidents.

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