Clearview Ai, a face recognition company that claims to have been scoring 3 billion photos from the Internet to run the face matching system, has applied its technology to everything from the police to dating, according to the patent application for 2020, which became public on Thursday.
The patent file was submitted in August-three months later, the company said in a federal court that the matter would take voluntary measures “to avoid dealing with non-governmental customers anywhere.” the Patent However, the application describes ways to implement the face recognition program to the private sector as well as for law enforcement and social work, as it says it can be used to identify people who use drugs or people who suffer from homelessness.
“In many cases, it may be desirable for the individual to know more about the person who meets them, such as through business, dating or any other relationship,” reads the application, shows a way to run a fast background examination based on a person’s face image file.
The document also describes many other possible uses of Clearview AI, such as “granting or refusing to access a person, facility, place, device” or to a public agency to accurately distribute social benefits and reduce fraud. It also says that users can publish Clearview to determine “sexual crimes” or “homeless people”, or to determine whether someone has a “mental problem or an obstacle”, which can affect the way the police respond to the situation.
The Clearview AI application largely describes the technology that the company has had since 2019 and has provided more than 2,200 law enforcement agencies, companies and individuals worldwide. While companies usually offer patents for technology that they hope to innovate in the future or to prevent competition, they may also be useful to describe big questions and “”The problems that the company is trying to solve“According to Salt.
“We have applied for a patent because we believe that we have created great innovations in the field of facial recognition, especially with regard to accuracy and the use of our database on a wide scale for facial photos available to the public,” the news in response to the list of questions. “Clearview AI is currently used only by the law applying for investigations after the crime.”
He added: “We do not intend to launch a copy of the Clearview AI.”
Ton-That also said that the Fox Rothschild LLP law office helped prepare the patent. The reason for describing the application of patents at the consumer level and the private sector for its technologies has not been explained.
TON-who said in the media interviews that the company’s program is “”Law enforcement accurately“This aims to help the victims of sex trafficking for children and other heinous crimes. However, this patent application shows that Clearview realizes that its technology can allow individuals, companies and other private entities to search for the background of anyone interacting with it. In depositing it, the company used a language Similar to those in her ads to the police stations, where she transmits a “need” to protect people from criminals and link it as the most effective way to do this.
David J. Stein, a lawyer at Studebaker & Brackett who has experience with patent in the field of automated learning: “I think it is interesting to compare the information on Clearview on Clearview regarding what they intend to do with what is in the application.” “Even if they say this is strict law enforcement, the application is not limited to that, the uses of technology are not limited to that.”
The patent application describes many possible uses of its technology that exceeds the world of law enforcement. Clearview AI, the application says, “provides a way to provide information on a topic (for example, a person, an unknown person, a person who is homeless).”
The application also says that the Clearview version can pull the profile information associated with the matching of the face. This information can include things like the history and place of birth, nationality, educational history, phone numbers, email addresses, hobbies, and personal interests.
It is worth noting that Stein has no details on how to protect people from investigating this way.
“In many of these types of applications, you will see a lot about privacy, you will see a lot about approval – there is nothing that I can see it,” Stein told Buzzfeed News. “There is only a brief signal and only one coincidence to [acknowledge] Perhaps there can be private settings. There are no details on this topic at all. “
The application states that Clearview can also be linked to other social media accounts of the match, such as “their professional profile” on a LinkedIn website, or “the business owner’s site”. Facebook and LinkedIn messages have already sent Clearview Cease and Desist messages to violate their rules about scraping and use pictures, but it was not known that any of the company had taken any legal action against the start of the New York City.
In its application, Clearview also describes the creation of a network for users if they are in the same geographical region or work in a specific industry, such as “law enforcement, retail, [or] Real estate. “One of the main points of such a network, as the company says, will be” the participation of the parties to individuals at risk “through a joint database.
TON-That has refused to tell Buzzfeed News if this feature is currently present, or if Clearview is planning to launch it.
Even if Clarefio has said its tool is dedicated to law enforcement, the US Patent Office will not matter. Stein said the intended field of use “is not completely related to the patent system.”
So why do these uses describe at all? Clearview descriptions of the essential technique, and how it can be used, is to manufacture the “very ambitious” application, according to Stein.
The application is thrived two years: crawling on the Internet, looking on the Internet for faces with faces, and face recognition technology itself. Stein said that the patent application uses a very wide and general language to describe how to assemble these tools, and this may be strategic.
Stein said: “You are going out more lands by saying less,” Stein said. In other words, Clarefio can try to defend the largest possible number of patents by describing itself in a very general way.
In the analysis of the patent application for Buzzfeed news, Adam Harvey, a face -to -recognition researcher, said it includes 30 claims describing the systems or code that can be found on public code warehouses, including Github.
Harvey said: “From the view of the CEO, you want IP in your portfolio to raise money or sell your company,” Harvey said.
TON-That, which was included as a single inventor in the patent application, has provided contradictory data on ClearView commercial relationships in the past. While at early last year he emphasized that the company is focusing on work with law enforcement, Buzzfeed News stated that the face recognition tool in Clerefio was used by private companies including MACY’s, Kohl’s and Bank of America. Clearview AI also had its own internal designation for people who were a “friend” of the company, and presented its programs to potential investors, politicians and personal knowledge of the company’s executives.
Civil rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and private citizens have expressed their concerns about Clarefio’s approach to personal privacy. Last year, a lawsuit was filed against the company in a federal court in Illinois for allegedly violating the state regarding the use of biometric data for commercial purposes by capturing the faces of the population without their consent.
In response to this lawsuit, Clarefio said it cancels the accounts of “every agent who was not linked to law enforcement or some federal or government administration, local office or agency”, and any account accounts based in Illinois.
Last week, the Federal Privacy Commissioner in Canada announced the results of the investigation that found Clarefio participated in “Collective Monitoring” From “millions of individuals” in the country. Clarefio had previously said that she had stopped working in the country when the investigation was launched last year.
Although Clearview has claimed that it has the right to the first amendment to use others’ images to train face recognition algorithms, some police stations are careful not to use the system due to privacy concerns. In November, the Los Angeles Police Department banned the use of Clarefio and other commercial recognition companies after Buzzfeed News informed officials that investigators were using the program without knowing their officers.
“Clearview takes pictures from all over the place, and from the administration’s point of view, it raises general confidence concerns,” Los Angeles Police Chief John McMahon told Buzzfeed News at that time.
McDonald’s Logan contributed to this story.
Say Job City in Pakistan for today latest jobs opportunities in private and Govt departments. View all new Government careers collected from daily. sayjobcity.com