I’m no luddite. But my sense of smell is decent and something is fishy. Clearview AI, an infamous company known for creating an identification database via sketchy means, announced that it’s closing in on 100 billion pictures of faces in its database, putting it closer to being able to identify almost everyone in the world. Police departments love tech like this. But should you?
And the company wants to expand beyond scanning faces for the police, saying in the presentation that it could monitor “gig economy” workers and is researching a number of new technologies that could identify someone based on how they walk, detect their location from a photo or scan their fingerprints from afar.
AI-Enabled Marketing: Your Secret Weapon for Growing Your Legal Practice
Drowning in marketing to-dos? Learn how firms use AI—the right way—to build lead magnets, rank in AI search, turn referrals into revenue, and craft data-driven business plans.
Government Use: Everyone knows cops have to (or are heavily suggested to obtain depending on your constitutional reading) get a warrant if they want to start searching a suspect. A traditional work around that has been third-party doctrine — they generally don’t need a warrant to get info on you from somebody else. And while that somebody else many include a vengeful former lover, it also includes banks, phone companies, internet service providers (ISPs), and email servers. Which is why it was surprising that Carpenter v. United States played out the way it did, requiring that police get a warrant if they want to get someone’s exact location by having the suspect’s phone company triangulate their location for them. But face grabbing is fair game. Which is why many faces, yours included, are probably already on file. Not to mention it, cops likely having a pic or two of my mug just in case already made me uneasy, but the Department of Homeland Security’s use of Clearview AI and companies like them is a little too much for my fragile 4th Amendment-loving heart to bear. I wonder if the court will find a way to make police use of Clearview AI require a search? If not, expect their stock prices to hit the moon. But there also be other reasons to invest.
Personal Use: While the 4th Amendment is a flimsy protection, at least it’s something. The really interesting applications of tech like Clearview AI would be what would happen if they went public. They fleshed out some of the possibilities in a presentation to potential investors, claiming that “[e]verything in the future, digitally and in real life, will be accessible through your face.” For the less imaginative of us, they even gave a few examples:
“It could “revolutionize” how workers in the gig economy are screened and that its technology could be used to evaluate people on apps used for dating or finding babysitters, house cleaners or repair contractors.”
Now I’ve done my fair share of Tindering — many people do a little Facebook stalking before they grab drinks, and for good reason, but something about an unregulated way of easy info grabbing feels kind of dystopian. Because, like anyone who’s forgotten their Gmail password or Facebook login knows, these companies are quick to merge into or partner with each other. Imagine the Bumble scenario where you no longer have to worry about wondering if their profile is a recent one because after the Clearview AI collab, they can see every picture of you ever posted online (whether you posted it or not), down to the baby pictures because the software will probably be able to account for changes over time. Or being blocked on Fiverr because you got a bad review on Lyft and Clearview AI matched your pictures together. And before you accuse me of paranoia, I highly recommend you take a look at what happened to a reporter who did a little of her own research on the surveillance company:
What Your Clients Say When They Know You Won’t Hear It
Download this 63-page survey report and get the truth about the legal client experience.
“While the company was dodging me, it was also monitoring me. At my request, a number of police officers had run my photo through the Clearview app. They soon received phone calls from company representatives asking if they were talking to the media — a sign that Clearview has the ability and, in this case, the appetite to monitor whom law enforcement is searching for.”
It might be time for lawyers, even the non-defense ones, to keep their eyes out on developments in surveillance. I know it’s not a government entity, but this is a liberty issue in the making — just think of the chilling effects on speech and free association credible suspicion of being in a database can lead to. Even libertarians might be okay with a bit of intervention from the feds here.
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.