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I got my file from Clearview AI

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Re: I got my file from Clearview AI

#41

Post by inetknght »

vageli wrote: post #31
kbenson wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, long ago the world was a bunch of small groups of people that knew each other intimately. At the village and tribe level there was little or no anonymity. The offset was that there was also intimacy . The problem now is that we again have no anonymity, but there is none of the intimacy needed to offset the negative aspects of this (and we probably can't, I don't think intimacy scales the same way, but who knows).

The people who left their tribes (or were forced off) were effectively anonymous to any new group of people they might come across. So if you were kicked from your group for a misdeed, sure you could continue your bad deeds in the new group or you could turn over a new leaf without the weight of your past mistakes holding you back.

Ever wonder why places were called the Wild West?

It's an awful dangerous place when you're alone out in the Wild West.

Re: I got my file from Clearview AI

#42

Post by jlgaddis »

wideasleep1 wrote: post #15
40four wrote: post #9

I used to think some of my peers were being overly cautious by purposely trying to obfuscate their online profile. Back in the day, I couldn’t care less about putting in effort to try to protect my online privacy. I have slowly but surely come to see the light. Now it’s at the forefront of my mind at all times. Learning about this company (and I imagine other unknown entities are doing the same) has encouraged me to…

Starting in the early 90's, 'everyone's a dog on the internet', so my profile pics were dogs. One buzzed evening, I changed a few to Fabio. Good luck, Fabio,

"I miss the good ole days of the Internet -- back when the men were men, the women were men, and the kids were FBI agents."

Re: I got my file from Clearview AI

#43

Post by kbenson »

vageli wrote: post #31
kbenson wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, long ago the world was a bunch of small groups of people that knew each other intimately. At the village and tribe level there was little or no anonymity. The offset was that there was also intimacy . The problem now is that we again have no anonymity, but there is none of the intimacy needed to offset the negative aspects of this (and we probably can't, I don't think intimacy scales the same way, but who knows).

The people who left their tribes (or were forced off) were effectively anonymous to any new group of people they might come across. So if you were kicked from your group for a misdeed, sure you could continue your bad deeds in the new group or you could turn over a new leaf without the weight of your past mistakes holding you back.

> The people who left their tribes (or were forced off) were effectively anonymous to any new group of people they might come across.

The people who left or were forced out often died. The world is a scary and dangerous place without a support network, which civilization basically is.

> So if you were kicked from your group for a misdeed, sure you could continue your bad deeds in the new group or you could turn over a new leaf without the weight of your past mistakes holding you back.

Outsiders were often viewed with distrust. Why wouldn't they be, when most people can only associate their leaving the safety of the community with at best a foreign way of thinking, but more likely them being forced out for past misdeeds.

It's sort of like interviewing for a job a 35 year old that has no work experience to show for the last decade, and not a very convincing story as to why (or even if it's feasible, you don't really know). Why take the risk?

Re: I got my file from Clearview AI

#44

Post by taneq »

samsquire wrote: post #4

Ideally we live in a society where not being anonymous is not such a big risk. But governments change, the data is still around to be abused. This is what disturbs me. Is how data can be abused in the future.

Yep. "I trust this entity with my data" is absolutely not an argument to be lax with your privacy.

Take Pebble for example. They had a very invasive privacy policy and reserved the right to upload pretty much anything from your phone via the companion app, but they were a cool hacker-friendly hardware startup and a lot of people trusted them.

Years down the track they ran out of runway (the ugly side of "unicorn or bust" venture capital but that's another rant) and were bought out by Fitbit. Meh, Fitbit seemed pretty good with privacy too so that's alright, I guess?

Now Google's bought Fitbit and potentially has a bunch of very personal, private data on everyone who originally trusted Pebble.

Re: I got my file from Clearview AI

#45

Post by peter_d_sherman »

Excerpt:

"What does a Clearview profile contain? Up until recently, it would have been almost impossible to find out. Companies like Clearview were not required to share their data, and could easily build massive databases of personal information in secret.

Thanks to two landmark pieces of legislation, though, that is changing. In 2018, the European Union began enforcing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). And on January 1, 2020, an equivalent piece of legislation, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), went into effect in my home state.

Both GDPR and CCPA give consumers unprecedented access to the personal data that companies like Clearview gather about them. If a consumer submits a valid request, companies are required to provide their data to them. The penalties for noncompliance stretch into the tens of millions of dollars. Several other U.S. states are considering similar legislation, and a federal privacy law is expected in the next five years."

Re: I got my file from Clearview AI

#46

Post by spockz »

DominikPeters wrote: post #25
hedora wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d love to see a successful copyright case along these lines. I wonder if this can be combined with adding a “terms of service” to your FB profile. Corporations have perverted contract law to the point where their terms of service are binding even if you never read them, or are even aware of them. Turnabout is fair play, right?

In OP’s case, his profile includes pictures scraped from a privately hosted blog, where adding such terms would be a simple matter.

Wouldn’t the new terms and conditions only apply to the pictures after the TnC have been added? So any already scraped picture could still be used.

Re: I got my file from Clearview AI

#49

Post by ArnoVW »

fg6hr wrote: post #29

It's interesting how collecting or distributing files with music is a grave crime and corporations can take down anything they don't like with a half-assed DMCA request, with no repercussions for "mistakes", but a person's face image doesn't belong to that person and the same corporations can safely collect and distribute these images for profit.

Actually, in Europe it is illegal to collect personally identifiable information of people without their consent. GDPR and all that.

I am surprised they haven't been fined out of existence yet.

Re: I got my file from Clearview AI

#50

Post by Kovah »

DeathArrow wrote: post #47

They are using copyrighted images. What if 1000 of copyright owners decide to sue them asking $100 000 each?

One thing you should be very careful about is licensing. If you post photos on Facebook or Instagram, you automatically grant them a license to redistribute the photo and share it with others. And these "others" can include Clearview. So, Clearview could have a contract with Facebook which legally allows them to get and save those photos. So, you are still the copyright owner, but due to licensing Clearview can legally store and use the photos.

About suing them if they would break copyrights: not sure about the US, but in Germany it wouldn't be that easy to actually sue them for such a high sum. You could argue that the company makes money by offering the search service, but there must be evidence that Clearview made that specific sum just with your photo(s), which is very unlikely.

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