US activists sue facial recognition firm claiming it snatched their identities

Facial recognition software company a new A new lawsuit claims, Clearview AI has appropriated the identities of billions of ‘unsuspecting’ people from websites including social media platforms to sell to police, chilling the right to free speech and endangering immigrants and people of colour. — Dreamstime/TNS

SAN JOSE, California: Facial recognition software company Clearview AI has appropriated the identities of billions of “unsuspecting” people from websites including social media platforms to sell to police, chilling the right to free speech and endangering immigrants and people of color, a new lawsuit claims.

“Clearview also scrapes images of people that were uploaded without their knowledge or consent, including images posted by friends or relatives and even images of people who inadvertently appear in the backgrounds of photographs taken by strangers,” the suit filed Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court alleged.