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Clearview AI: secretive company that might end privacy as we know it (2020)

nytimes.com

11–20 of 76 posts

Re: Clearview AI: secretive company that might end privacy as we know it (2020)

#12

Clearly the countermove is to train an image generator on your face and flood the internet with fake data. Have your face appear tagged in weird remote places, with several made up names, on statues, in ancient manuscripts. Pretend to be dead, pretend to be a medieval monk, a war hero from the 1940s, a fictional character. Poison those ratty algorithm with nonsense and hide within the noise.

Not a bad idea, to be honest.

Re: Clearview AI: secretive company that might end privacy as we know it (2020)

#13
post #5

Pretty sure that pretty much all of their business practices are GDPR violations. So we do have a choice - we could either end privacy, or have legislation that ends a potentially profitable startup.

I care about my privacy. Why should I care about profitability of startup that violates it.

Re: Clearview AI: secretive company that might end privacy as we know it (2020)

#14

>One reason that Clearview is catching on is that its service is unique. That’s because Facebook and other social media sites prohibit people from scraping users’ images — Clearview is violating the sites’ terms of service. “A lot of people are doing it,” Mr. Ton-That shrugged. “Facebook knows.” So I own the copyright to the image I uploaded to facebook I licensed it to Facebook they stole it from Facebook. Did they…

LinkedIn lost a lawsuit over that subject, which effectively nullifies those terms.

Re: Clearview AI: secretive company that might end privacy as we know it (2020)

#15

>One reason that Clearview is catching on is that its service is unique. That’s because Facebook and other social media sites prohibit people from scraping users’ images — Clearview is violating the sites’ terms of service. “A lot of people are doing it,” Mr. Ton-That shrugged. “Facebook knows.” So I own the copyright to the image I uploaded to facebook I licensed it to Facebook they stole it from Facebook. Did they…

> Did they infringe my copyright?

Yes. How are you going to stop them?

Re: Clearview AI: secretive company that might end privacy as we know it (2020)

#16
This recent article from 404 Media details how a few companies are already making it possible to doxx individuals based on single images posted on social media using facial recognition AI.

I experimented with two of the free sites alluded to in the article (PimEyes and facecheck.id), using a photo of my face that is not online. Both sites turned up a lot of images of me, including some that were 10+ years old and a few I had never seen before, collectively making it possible to identify my name, employer, city of residence, partial career history, etc. I'd say the problem is not just Clearview.

https://www.404media.co/taylor-swift-facial-recognition-tikt...

Re: Clearview AI: secretive company that might end privacy as we know it (2020)

#17

Clearly the countermove is to train an image generator on your face and flood the internet with fake data. Have your face appear tagged in weird remote places, with several made up names, on statues, in ancient manuscripts. Pretend to be dead, pretend to be a medieval monk, a war hero from the 1940s, a fictional character. Poison those ratty algorithm with nonsense and hide within the noise.

The countermove is what D-ID (YC funded, IIRC) said they would do and then changed their mind: train a face recognition library to generate modified versions of a picture such that a human would still believe it's the same person, but different enough that face recognition systems think it's someone else. Then use those pictures in all of your internet socials.

Edit: according to this article they did develop that, but they don't offer the service to individuals: https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/05/d-id-launches-its-initial-...

Re: Clearview AI: secretive company that might end privacy as we know it (2020)

#18

>One reason that Clearview is catching on is that its service is unique. That’s because Facebook and other social media sites prohibit people from scraping users’ images — Clearview is violating the sites’ terms of service. “A lot of people are doing it,” Mr. Ton-That shrugged. “Facebook knows.” So I own the copyright to the image I uploaded to facebook I licensed it to Facebook they stole it from Facebook. Did they…

> Did they infringe my copyright? Yes. How are you going to stop them?

Seems like the logical thing would be for some attorney to do the leg work for a class action lawsuit and ask for essentially all of their money given the number of acts of infringement.

Re: Clearview AI: secretive company that might end privacy as we know it (2020)

#20

Clearly the countermove is to train an image generator on your face and flood the internet with fake data. Have your face appear tagged in weird remote places, with several made up names, on statues, in ancient manuscripts. Pretend to be dead, pretend to be a medieval monk, a war hero from the 1940s, a fictional character. Poison those ratty algorithm with nonsense and hide within the noise.

Or just give up on privacy in the sense you mean. Ultimately we’re all living in meatspace. I was happier when I just accepted it. I’ve been on both sides of the privacy fence — when I was in my 20s I cared deeply about not being known, as you say. But it was self destructive, and I’ve seen many people who end up as reclusive as I was.

It’s fine to have privacy. And it’s necessary. But obsessing about it too much can really get to you, in a way that’s sort of hard to articulate.

If someone knows the city you live in, is that really a big deal?

Now, there is the flip side of this. I recognize this is a privileged position to have. Some people’s lives have been ruined due to harassment of their physical location, and I am fortunate not to have to worry. It’s particularly easy for me to say this as a man, since women have a very different threat model.

But as with all things, it’s a balance. The cold truth is that technology will only accelerate the trends that first Facebook and now Clearview are exploiting.

Just be happy and live a nice life. I hid too long.

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