A class-action lawsuit was filed earlier this week against Clearview AI, a New York-based startup that has created one of the biggest facial recognition databases in the world. The database was developed by scraping social media networks for people’s photos. The startup was originally low-profile but was exposed last week by the New York Times, revealing how the company was selling access to facial recognition software to law enforcement.
The startup previously claimed that it could identify any person based on a single photo, revealing personal information like the target’s real name, general location, and other identifying information. The report published by the New York Times was met with outrage among US citizens who had photos collected and added to the database without consent. The company had allegedly collected more than three billion photos when the NYT article was published.
Read More: Class-action lawsuit filed against controversial Clearview AI startup
