Introduction

In March, the officer of Clearview AI's Government Affairs said the Ukrainian government had started using the company's face recognition technology to "uncover Russian assailants, combat misinformation and identify the dead," Reuters reported.

Lee Wolosky, an adviser to Clearview AI, added that the face search engine would be provided to Ukraine for free, allowing authorities to vet suspects for different purposes.

According to a copy seen by Reuters, Clearview AI CEO Hoan Ton-That sent a letter to the Ukraine government to offer help after the flames of war were enkindled. The US startup mentioned they had not provided the technology to Russia in the "special operation" called by the Kremlin.

The Ukrainian Defence Ministry did not reply to comments on this.

What Can Clearview AI Do?

With over 2 billion photos from VKontakte stored in a database of 10 billion images, Ton-That said the firm could make use of them to provide efficient services. Besides, PimEyes, a public image search engine utilized to identify people from the images of the conflict, might not have as complete datasets as Clearview did for lack of images from the social media services. VKontakte didn't respond immediately, and this was not new for the facial recognition platform. In 2020, Meta (former Facebook) demanded Clearview stop scraping images from their sites; so did LinkedIn, Twitter, and Youtube.

In Ton-That's letter, he wrote that the database could help Ukraine identify people without vital signs more simply than matching fingerprints, and it could even work in cases of facial injuries. A study from the US Department of Energy found that decomposition would reduce the effectiveness of the technology, with potential promising results from a 2021 paper.

Clearview AI could also be used to reunite refugees separated from their families, identify Russian agents and assist in debunking false war-related social media posts.

Ton-That also said that the exact purpose of the Ukrainian government using the technology was unclear and that other Ukrainian authorities might also deploy Clearview's technology.

Critical Opinions

However, this technology could misidentify individuals as well. As Albert Fox Cahn stated, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project in New York, mismatching could lead to civilian deaths.

US law enforcement is one of the main customers of Clearview AI. As shown on its website, Clearview AI "provides law enforcement agencies with greater insight and lead generation through the use of its investigative platform, which can help accurately and rapidly identify suspects, persons of interest, and victims to help solve and prevent crimes." However, the company is facing lawsuits accusing it of violating privacy rights by obtaining photos online in the US, and although Clearview argued that its data collection works just like Google search, some countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia, have argued that its practices are illegal.

In response, Ton-That mentioned that the technology of Clearview should never be used as the only true proof of identity and that he had no intention of violating the Geneva Conventions, which set out authorization requirements for humanitarian treatment in times of war.

He said that, like other clients, those in Ukraine would be trained and should input case IDs and reasons for the search before querying.

The Story of Clearview AI

Clearview AI is a groundbreaking face recognition application designed by Clearview, a New York-based AI face recognition startup. The company could easily view a public photo of a person by taking and uploading it, and then point out the web link and context of that image.

As they claimed, Clearview AI has a database of more than 10 billion images of faces around the world and uses artificial intelligence to correlate biometric data extracted from the images with other image information such as captions, geographic locations, and web pages where they were originally posted.

Face recognition startup Clearview AI plans to develop technology to recognize faces as people become older to secure major contracts with the US government.

As of early 2020, Clearview AI's face recognition software had been used by more than 2,200 organizations, including US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, Macy's, Walmart, and Bank of America.

Clearview has been embroiled in controversy because the firm has been collecting photos of users from Facebook and Instagram, as well as suppliers of stock images like Flickr and Getty Images. The company also claims to have made them available to 600 US law enforcement agencies without public scrutiny, including the local FBI in Florida and the Department of Homeland Security.

In May 2021, the nonprofit Privacy International (PI) and several European human rights organizations filed a lawsuit against Clearview AI in five countries that included France, Austria, Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom, accusing Clearview AI of violating regulations concerning personal data protection. In November 2021, the Information Commissioner's Office of the UK fined Clearview AI $22.6 million for failing to comply with national data protection laws.

In March 2022, the Italian data protection authority GPDP imposed a fine of 20 million euros for unlawfully collecting biometric information from users of the nation.

GPDP said its investigation revealed that the company had illegally processed personal data with biometric and geolocation data and violated basic principles of the GDPR, such as "adequately informing users."

But the company's funding situation displays an optimistic outlook so far, with the founder, Hoan Ton-That, saying the company is "gratified by the ongoing support from our wide range of diverse investors who are committed to Clearview AI and its mission to help law enforcement solve crimes."