Clearview AI scraped 30 billion images from Facebook and other social media sites and gave them to cops: it puts everyone into a 'perpetual police line-up'

Clearview AI built a massive facial recognition database by scraping 30 billion photos from Facebook and other social media platforms without users' permission, which law enforcement has accessed nearly a million times since 2017[^1].

The company markets its technology to law enforcement as a tool "to bring justice to victims," with clients including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. However, privacy advocates argue it creates a "perpetual police line-up" that includes innocent people who could face wrongful arrests from misidentification[^1].

Major social media companies like Facebook sent cease-and-desist letters to Clearview AI in 2020 for violating user privacy. Meta claims it has since invested in technology to combat unauthorized scraping[^1].

While Clearview AI recently won an appeal against a £7.5m fine from the UK's privacy watchdog, this was solely because the company only provides services to law enforcement outside the UK/EU. The ruling did not grant broad permission for data scraping activities[^5].

The risks extend beyond law enforcement use - once photos are scraped, individuals lose control over their biometric data permanently. Critics warn this could enable:

• Retroactive prosecution if laws change
• Creation of unauthorized AI training datasets
• Identity theft and digital abuse
• Commercial facial recognition systems without consent[^1]

Sources:

[^1]: Business Insider - Clearview AI scraped 30 billion images from Facebook and other social media sites

[^5]: BBC - Face search company Clearview AI overturns UK privacy fine