Controversial Facial Recognition Firm Clearview AI Is Teaming Up With ICE

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this week signed a deal with Clearview AI to license the facial recognition company’s technology. According to a federal purchase order unearthed by the nonprofit Tech Inquiry (via The Verge), an ICE mission support office in Dallas is paying $224,000 for “Clearview licenses.” Engadget has contacted Clearview and ICE for details on the scope of this agreement, as well as what ICE plans to do with its access to Clearview’s tech.

The company is able to identify people by matching a photo of them against billions of images it has scraped from social media and other internet services. The American Civil Liberties Union sued Clearview in May for allegedly violating Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. Lawsuits accusing the company of breaking privacy and safety laws have been filed in several other states.

Clearview plans to invoke the First Amendment in its defense. CEO Hoan Ton-That has suggested that since those images are “publicly available information,” it’s fair game to scrape them.

Read more at engadget

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