As a Councillor for the City of Clearview, I am always looking for ways to improve the City’s services and the experience of residents. One way I do this is by ensuring that the City’s technology is cutting edge. This is why I was pleased to see that the council recently made a new contract with ICE to provide a high quality, secure cloud platform to their residents. By providing a unified system for the administration of all the city’s online services, my fellow Councillors are doing a lot for our citizens. The cloud provides an efficient way for the City to keep up with its growing demands, and also helps residents to save money on their utility bills.
Privacy concerns
Clearview AI Inc is a company that scrapes public web data and uses it to identify people. In the process, they have amassed a database of over 20 billion facial photos. They are also selling that data to law enforcement. But the company is facing scrutiny for its lack of privacy measures. Several nations have imposed sanctions on the company, including a $22.6 million fine from Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office, which claimed that the company failed to obtain consent from residents of the U.K.
The OAIC is currently investigating the Australian Federal Police’s use of technology sourced from Clearview. If they find that the police have breached the country’s privacy law, the government could be in line for a sanction.
The OAIC is also looking into how the government should deal with companies like Facebook, which have been found to have broken privacy laws in several other countries. The agency has decided that the most important thing to do is to make sure that the government has sufficient tools to combat the company.
New contract with ICE
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced a new contract for facial-recognition technology from a Dallas-based company. It’s believed the tech will be used by agents who are investigating cybercrime cases and online child exploitation. However, the agreement has raised a number of ethical concerns.
ICE is known for its harsh immigration policies, including the separation of children from their parents. In addition, the agency has been criticized for its use of drivers’ license databases without permission.
In December of last year, Clearview AI entered into a contract with the U.S. Air Force for $50,000. At the time, the company was facing legal threats.
Since then, Clearview has been under heavy scrutiny. Several companies have complained of the company’s misuse of their data, including Facebook and Twitter. Google and YouTube have also denounced Clearview’s use of information.
GDPR fines
The GDPR has forced companies of all sizes to reckon with their data collection practices, but one nifty little gizmo has caught the attention of the law enforcement and privacy regulators alike. One company has been fined a couple of billion dollars and has a few things to answer for. If you’re a fan of surveillance technology, you may already be aware of Clearview. They have a facial recognition program that can churn out billions of records for law enforcement agencies in the US, though that is by no means the only locale where their product is on display.
On the other hand, Clearview’s sleazy business model has drawn the ire of several countries, including the U.K. A recent audit by the Information Commissioner’s Office found the company had illegally resold some of the personal information of UK residents, making the company one of the most hacked and shady organisations in the country.
