Facial recognition technology is getting out of control

Until January few had heard of Clearview AI, a company that has scraped billions of publicly available images from millions of websites in order to build a facial image search engine app. Clearview claims that more than six hundred law enforcement agencies have used its technology in the last year. News that police officers can search against a plethora of images uploaded to the most popular social media platforms has prompted outcry from officials, activists, and civil libertarians. Clearview's technology should concern everyone who values privacy and security. Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That has been on the defensive since a New York Times report raised the company's profile from relative obscurity to the topic of a nationwide privacy discussion.