New face recognition technology patent filed by Clearview AI in the United States

Clearview AI is on the verge of receiving official approval for its controversial face recognition technology. Politico reports that Clearview has announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has filed a notice asking that it can receive its patent after paying the administrative fees.

The Clearview AI face recognition system, used by law enforcement agencies including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, is fueled by its large image databases, which are fed by searching social media and using images of unsatisfied individuals; Has been criticized. In an interview with Politico, co-founder Hoan Ton-That claimed that this was the first face recognition patent to include “large-scale Internet data”. The company sells its tools to government customers (including law enforcement) in hopes of speeding up searches.

The company has stated that the collected images are public; Therefore, their use is not prohibited. Clearview’s approach has prompted Facebook, Twitter, etc. to issue letters to stop the company. Officials in Australia, Britain and Canada have also criticized the company for violating its privacy policy.

In general, face recognition systems have been criticized for their inaccuracy, which in some cases leads to people being mistakenly arrested. Most importantly, systems have difficulty identifying people of color and women. In addition, people are concerned that these systems could be used to monitor political demonstrations and protests.