Clearview AI Gets Closer to US Patent for Facial Recognition

According to a report from Politico, Clearview AI might soon receive a US patent for its facial recognition technology.  

Reportedly, the company was sent a “notice of allowance”, meaning after the payment of required administration fees the company will have its patent, by the US Patent and Trademark Office. 

The company has built its facial recognition database by leveraging images across social media (and the internet). This has practically landed the company steeped in controversy.  

The patent application has details the use of a “web crawler”, noting that “online photos associated with a person’s account may help to create additional records of facial recognition data points,” to acquire images. 

However, critics have argued that the company’s facial recognition is a privacy violation. They have even said that it may have negative impact on minorities. Reportedly, the tech is less accurate when identifying people of color, leading to potential false arrests. 

Last year, American Civil Liberties Union sued them for Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act violation. In November, the Australian government ordered them to clear its citizen database, while European agencies filed complaints.  

Clearview AI has failed to get Big Tech on its good side.

Last year, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube had all sent desist letters demanding the company to stop scraping images from their platforms, as it violates site’s policies. 

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