Clearview AI, an American technology company that provides facial recognition software, primarily for law enforcement agencies has been hacked. The start-up has a database of more than three billion photographs from Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

 

The hackers gained access to its client list but the start-up says its servers had not been breached.

 

US law enforcement agencies use Clearview AI’s facial-recognition software to identify suspects. The start-up’s use of images gotten from the internet is a cause for privacy concerns.

 

The company told BBC News in a statement that: “Security is Clearview’s top priority. Unfortunately, data breaches are part of life in the 21st Century. Our servers were never accessed. We patched the flaw and continue to work to strengthen our security.”

 

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The Daily Beast was the first to report the incident after reviewing documents from Clearview AI staff, writing:

 

Clearview AI disclosed to its customers that an intruder “gained unauthorized access” to its list of customers, to the number of users accounts those customers had set up and to the number of searches its customers have conducted.

Clearview AI says it is First Amendment rights to collect public photos

A principal analyst with security company Synopsys, Tim Mackey said:

 

“While their attorney rightly states that data breaches are a fact of life in modern society, the nature of Clearview AI’s business makes this type of attack particularly problematic.

 

“Facial-recognition systems have evolved to the point where they can rapidly identify an individual – but combining facial recognition data with data from other sources like social media enables a face to be placed in a context which in turn can enable detailed user profiling, all without explicit consent from the person whose face is being tracked.”

 

A New York Times investigation in January showed that Clearview AI’s still keeps the pictures on its database even after users delete them from their social media accounts.

 

Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook have all demanded they stop using photos from their platforms. However, Clearview AI’s chief executive Hoan Ton-That told the CBS that it was his First Amendment right to collect public photos.

 

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